“Oh? I didn't expect you to be here,” the Third Hokage noted from behind them

Original Chapter by AkaB

“Oh? I didn't expect all of you to be here,” a venerable and very recognizable voice said from behind Sakura.

The pinkette's eyes widened. She'd always been quite respectful of authority (until it pissed her off, like Kakashi often did), so her instincts were almost hard wired to respond to that voice. “Hokage-sama!” she cried out as she turned and stood in one swift move, her arms at her side in a respectful waiting-at-attention stance. After standing there for a second or so, she remembered that she was naked. In front of the leader of the village.

'Noooooooooooooooooooo!' her Inner cried out inside her head.

The elderly Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, raised a grey-white eyebrow at the girl's respectful antics. “Come now, Sakura. There's no need to stand on duty in the public springs. It's one of the reasons I come here on mixed bathing day – to mingle with the village people without the Hokage robes getting in the way.”

Sakura felt the sweat beading on her forehead as she fought off a strong urge to cover her bare body. Being naked in front of Naruto was pretty terrible, yes, but having the Professor, the God of Shinobi talking to her like this took her humiliation to a new level. It felt somehow disrespectful to the elderly leader to appear before him like this. In the public bath. Where he would be naked too...

'Don't look! Don't look!' Inner Sakura desperately screamed out.

Unfortunately, with human nature being what it is, Sakura couldn't stop herself. Her eyes darted down for a split moment, before returning to his eyes.

Sarutobi saw it. Of course he did, he was a Kage level ninja. But his kindly smile never wavered, even if he did chortle at the antics of youth a little on his insides.

'Sooooo wrinkly...' her Inner said as she gagged. Outwardly, Sakura did her best to show nothing.

“I must say it's a nice change to see girls like you here on this day,” the Hokage said as he nodded to Sakura and Hinata (who was trying and failing to disappear underneath the water, her face beet-red at being clad in only a towel in front of their unashamedly naked village leader). “Usually women of your age are too caught up in worry about propriety and 'perverts' to appreciate the social togetherness that a bit of mixed bathing can bring.”

“Hey, that was what Sakura said!” Naruto interjected. He turned to her (not that she could see, since she was facing the Hokage), and shouted, “You were right, Sakura!”

Sarutobi saw the briefest tic on Sakura's cheek. To a ninja of his experience, she may as well have broken down and confessed her whole story. The Hokage's eyebrows rose as he glanced between her – the only one of the three who was naked – and the other two, and correctly added up the numbers and solved the equation. “Oh ho!” Turning to Naruto, he called out, “Well she is a very smart girl. There was a reason why I put her onto your team, after all.”

Turning back to Sakura, he leaned in slightly and said in a voice low enough to not carry to her two companions in the spring, “I see the Will of Fire burns strongly in you, young Haruno, if you're willing to go to such lengths when your initial plan fails. You'll have a strong future if you continue to determinedly follow your goals with such willingness to sacrifice for them.”

“Uh... thank you?” Sakura asked as much as said. Was the leader of the village actually congratulating her for exposing her naked body to her friends? He couldn't be, could he?

“One piece of advice, though,” he added. “Young boys of that age could stare at their crushes for days and not grow tired of it. It often takes them a bit of maturing before they come to value the art of the tease and hinting rather than showing. Perhaps you should modify your plan?”

Days? Days!? Then that meant that... that she'd spread her pussy in front of Naruto for nothing!

Inner Sakura took a deep (and unneeded, considering she wasn't corporeal) breath, before wailing, 'Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo-'

“Ah. Is... is that so?” Sakura swallowed. “Then... thank you for your advice, Hokage-sama.”

_'-oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!' Her Inner trailed off, before taking another unnecessary breath and starting again. 'Noooooooooooooooooooooo-'_

“Think nothing of it,” he kindly replied as he patted his hand on her bare shoulder. On the last pat, he gently turned her around so that she was facing the spring, and then took his hand away. A moment later, he gave her a gentle double tap of 'off you go' against her ass cheeks.

_ 'oooo...' Inner Sakura cut off her wail, pausing a moment before hesitantly asking, 'Wait, did he just pat me on the butt? Ew! Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww!'_

“You should run along to your friends,” Sarutobi said with a grandfatherly smile, before waving to the other two young ninja. “Have an enjoyable soak, all of you.”

“Oi, you're not going to join us!?” Naruto shout-asked, not even noticing the widened, fear-tinged eyes of Hinata at the suggestion of sharing a bath with their naked leader.

The Hokage chuckled as he turned to walk away. “Not today, Naruto. The antics of youth should be enjoyed by the young.”

Sakura slowly blinked as she mentally took her urge to curl up into a ball and cry, and crunched the emotion down into a tight ball before pushing it deep down into her Inner Personality. The leader of the village had given her leaderly advice. While the both of them were naked. Her Hokage had seen her bare body in all of its coltish glory. These were the kind of emotional scars that Jounin were supposed to handle, not recently minted Genin.

Still, despite her increasing desire to repress the memory of the last five minutes, she had been given personal advice by her Hokage. Only a fool ignored such experienced guidance. If he was right – and she didn't doubt the experience of the shinobi legend – then she could grind her pussy in Naruto's face for the next hour and he wouldn't get tired of it. So she had to change tactics.

Sakura thought on the problem for a long moment, too absorbed in her thinking to realize that both Naruto and Hinata were stealing glances at her as she stood there before them. Her central problem was Naruto, and how to rouse his interest in someone that he barely noticed. So, who did interest Naruto? Herself, obviously and unfortunately. Iruka, probably. And...

-and Sasuke. Nobody riled Naruto up like Sasuke. But why? Sasuke wasn't the only one who did better than Naruto in class – everyone did, he had been the dead last after all. Sasuke wasn't the only one who'd pointed out that he did better than Naruto, either – Kiba loved to boast and hadn't been the only one to rib Naruto about his grades. It wasn't just due to them being teammates either – Naruto had clashed with Sasuke long before that announcement. No, the one difference that Sasuke had which lit a fire in Naruto and made him pay attention... was her. Sakura was romantically interested in Sasuke, and so Naruto took notice of him. Sometimes even borderline obsessed over his rivalry with him. If Naruto hadn't spent today drooling over her naked body, she might have even thought he was gay for Sasuke.

Her eyes alit on Hinata, who seemed to be stealing glances at her for some reason. Maybe that was what was needed. Naruto would have to pay attention to Hinata if Sakura did, right? She'd have to be careful, certainly, to avoid taking it too far and making Naruto challenge Hinata as a rival. Sakura didn't think the poor Hyūga girl could take that. But if she was careful... showed just enough interest in her to pique his curiosity...

Well, that was one option. What else could she do?