“Hinata wanted to see our teamwork at work,” Sakura said, leaving her towel on.

Original Chapter by AkaB

“Oh, well, Hinata wanted to see our teamwork in action,” Sakura said as she pulled along the near-catatonic-from-humiliation Hyūga girl. “Now come on, we need to find a good spot,” she called over her shoulder as she walked away.

Sakura barely repressed her shudder as she saw Naruto's eyes locking on her bare ass just before she looked away. It went without saying that she'd also seen the tent in the towel around his waist. Naruto had an erection from looking at her naked body. On the one hand, it was an affirmation that someone considered her to be attractive. On the other hand, it was Naruto, so on that balance she thought she did well to hold back her gag reflex.

The Pinkett knew she had to put it out of her mind for the moment. There was a more pressing concern, and that was the girl next to her. Looking over, Sakura could tell that the beet-red girl was only moments away from fainting. So, even though she could almost physically feel Naruto's eyes on her butt cheeks, she did her best to ignore the boy in favour of the Hyūga girl.

“Careful there, Hinata,” Sakura whispered as she pulled the girl along. “If you fall over you might lose your towel and give Naruto a show.”

Hinata's face turned from red to white at the thought, the shot of adrenaline ending any chance of her fainting. After a moment she quietly stuttered out, “T-this is c-cruel, Sakura! W-why are you d-doing this to m-me? I-if I'd listened to you then N-Naruto would have seen me n-n-naked!”

Sakura blinked. What? She was the one naked here! After a moment she realized what the other girl was thinking – she had tried to get Hinata to open up by ditching the towel in the changing room, which would have made her look a bit guilty if it wasn't for her own nudity. She was kind of a bit insulted that Hinata thought she was cruelly pranking her. Sure, her reasons for inviting Hinata had been self-serving, but they'd been self-serving in a way that also helped both Hinata and (probably) Naruto as well. “What are you talking about, Hinata? I invited you and Naruto together to go to the hot springs. You must have known that it was the mixed bathing day here. Why else would I have invited a boy to come along with us?”

Of course, the truth was that Sakura's original plan had been to use the excuse of the social female nudity of the baths to loudly talk about Hinata's assets and general attractiveness while sitting in a spring right next to the male/female partition, knowing full well that Naruto wouldn't be able to resist listening in. She'd hoped that talking Hinata up in a reasonable setting for it would raise the boy's interests. Unfortunately that had spectacularly backfired.

Now, in order to salvage her social pride, she had to get out of today with everyone convinced that she'd appeared naked in front of Naruto due to the traditions of mixed bathing and not due to her own stupidity or in some attempt to... ugh... seduce him. That was tough enough, considering how her Inner Sakura was already wailing at her from all of the humiliating emotions that she'd shoved down on it. It was a constant struggle to not run for the changing room. But even if she didn't run that wasn't a victory by itself. She also had to salvage something of her original plan out of today. And that meant that she had to get Naruto looking at Hinata and not at her own uncovered body.

Sakura had gone through the same kunoichi classes as other female ninja. So she'd learned that sometimes the best way to gain a guy's interest wasn't always to take your dress off, but to dress up. The right makeup, the right coy look, the right clothes or lingerie that promised without quite delivering... she'd been taught that these could interest a man where a flash of breasts could not.

So in theory Hinata, in her tantalizing towel, should draw a guy's eye more than her own naked body. She just had to get Naruto to realize that, either by drawing his attention to the Hyūga girl, or by making her own naked body so boring and common place that his eyes weren't glued to her bare flesh any longer. Of course, she could also get Naruto interested by somehow divesting Hinata of her towel, and letting the girl's superior body to speak for itself. But she didn't want to **** the girl into anything – it would be a bit like kicking a small puppy. If she could convince Hinata to do it of her own free will, though...

Shunting the options to the back of her head for the moment, she kept bullshitting. “Seriously, Hinata, there's nothing wrong with being naked at the hot springs. We do it all the time when it's just us girls, and it's not really any different when it's mixed. It's natural, and a great social lubricant. I invited you because I thought this would be a good chance for you to get closer to Naruto in a way that he wouldn't question. Do you seriously want to look back on your life ten years from now and remember that you gave up this chance to make an unforgettable memory with him?”

Hinata blinked. “N-no. But-”

“Great!” Sakura said, cutting off any objections. “You won't regret sticking with this!” she added. Looking up ahead, she spotted the hot spring that she'd been aiming for. She didn't need to look back to know that Naruto was right behind her, looking right at her behind.

'Soiled for life! Never, ever gonna be married!' Inner Sakura wailed.

Ignoring her Inner's cries over her nudity, Sakura...