"The Nidaime's Encouragement... how nostalgic." The woman sighed

“The Nidaime’s Encouragement… how nostalgic,” the woman sighed.

Sakura stared at the woman in disbelief. Nostalgic? Nostalgic!? How could stripping a girl naked be considered nostalgic!?

The woman turned to the bearded man and smiled. “Do you remember the first time you got the punishment, Asuma? You kept trying to train with both of your hands over your crotch. I almost pulled a muscle from laughing too hard.”

Asuma cleared his throat in embarrassment, before returning fire. “Oh like you were any different the first time you were Encouraged, Kurenai. You didn’t even have anything to hide back then and you still kept one arm over your chest for the first couple of hours!”

Instead of getting angry at him, which Sakura honestly thought would have been justified, Kurenai just chuckled in response. “Raido had it the worst, though.”

“Oh yeah,” Asuma agreed with a fond grin.

“Those were the days,” Kurenai eventually responded, shaking her head to clear off old thoughts. “Why did everyone stop doing it, anyway? Used to be you’d see at least three or four hapless Genin on any old day walking around without a stitch, drawing a little chuckle from everyone who saw.”

Kakashi decided to answer, his expression a little more serious than usual. “In the aftermath of that certain attack on the village, and the loss of a certain shining leader, nobody wanted to seem frivolous by encouraging that kind of… tomfoolery. After a couple of years of avoiding it, even after everything settled down I guess everyone sort of forgot all about it.”

The other two sensei nodded. “I guess it’s a shame,” Asuma noted. “It really was a good way of motivating students.”

“I wouldn’t be half the kunoichi I am today without overcoming those early trials,-” Kurenai agreed.

Ino’s eyes widened as she experienced a terrible premonition of the future.

“-On the other hand, some old traditions are best left in the past. Look to the future, I say! Right, Hinata?”

Hinata, clearly liking the idea of this ‘Nidaime’s Encouragement’ thing even less than Ino, silently nodded her head so fast that she got dizzy after a few seconds.

“Well, it’s something to think about, anyway,” Kurenai said in a tone that did not encourage her female student whatsoever. And Ino certainly wasn’t liking the way that Asuma was nodding in agreement. “Kakashi, you may as well have your team go first. So you can’t blame us for being late.”

“When would I ever do a thing like that?” Kakashi calmly asked, even as he walked over to the camera man. “Come on, team.”

Sakura swallowed as she looked at the camera, before she looked at her leader. “You… you can’t be serious.”

“Of course I can be serious. Ask anyone.” Kakashi looked back at her, his one visible eye crinkling to show he was smiling behind his mask as he added, “Consider this a lesson in facing your fears.”

Sakura felt her stomach drop at those words. As roundabout as it may have been worded, that still sounded like an order to her. And she’d always been the kind of girl to follow her teachers’ directives. “...Yes, sensei.”

Reluctantly she stepped forward, squeezing her eyes shut a little as she realized that there was no way she could keep everything covered with the other Genin behind her. She did her best to not think about the way everyone was probably looking at her exposed backside, and did a miserably bad job of it.

In a few long, agonizing seconds she made it to in front of the camera as Naruto and Sasuke eventually joined her. She tried not to think about where their eyes had been focused while they’d been behind her as she stood there waiting to have the most embarrassing photo of her life get taken.

The camera man looked over at Team Seven, before looking down into the camera’s view finder for a moment, before looking up again with a frown. “This won’t do, you look like you’re going to a funeral, and not celebrating on of the biggest milestones of your ninja career. Girl, you need to get those hands out of the way and stop looking like you’re being sent to the **** division.”

Sakura turned her head back to look at Kakashi, who shrugged in response. “He’s the professional here. And as a ninja you should always listen to the professionals until you’ve got enough experience to hold your own.”

Sakura hesitantly nodded, before turning back to the camera. After a moment she took a deep breath, held it, and then slowly exhaled to center herself. A few moments later she slowly and extremely reluctantly pulled her hands away from her chest and pussy, exposing herself to the camera and to the other Genin waiting to get their own photos done. After another deep breath and exhale, she did her best to put on a smile while she kept her trembling hands at her side.

“And a one, two, three… cheese!” The cameraman pressed the button to take a photo, and Sakura sighed in relief. Finally, it was over. She immediately covered herself again, mortified to find that the hand covered her vulva was wet with the juices of her involuntary arousal.

A few moments later, Sakura felt her heart sink as the cameraman looked up with a frown.

“No, I don’t think I can hold my head up high when giving this photo to the Hokage. It may not be the frontlines but I still have my pride as a professional. We’re going to have to take it again. Girl, you need to learn how to fake a smile better.”

“I’m smiling as hard as I can!” Sakura protested.

“That’s probably the problem, then,” the cameraman responded. After a few moments of though, he pointed to Naruto. “You, come here for a sec.”

Naruto blinked, pointing at himself before trotting over. Sakura looked on, taking the chance to cover her body again even as her eyes narrowed in suspicion. It was never a good thing when Naruto got involved in something. Unfortunately his head was in the way so she couldn’t lip-read the cameraman’s words and she was too far away to hear them. After a minute or so, Naruto stepped back, nodded his head, and then turned and jogged back with a huge grin on his face.

‘I have a very, very bad feeling about this,’ Inner muttered. Outer Sakura definitely agreed, but there wasn’t much she could do about it. Steeling herself, she stood in place again, reluctantly exposing her body to everyone watching.

“And a one, two, three… cheese!”

Just as the cameraman shouted three, Sakura felt a sharp pain on her left butt cheek. Gasping, her eyes widened and she shouted as she jumped into the air. Beside her she could see Naruto adopting a similar leap just as the man shouted “Cheese!”

A second later, Sakura landed on the ground, her teeth grinding together as she realized what had happened. “You pinched me on the butt!” she screamed as she rounded on Naruto, who’d had the unusual common sense to run behind Kakashi.

“Don’t blame me, the camera guy told me to do it!” Naruto protested.

“Yes, and it made for a much better shot,” the cameraman agreed as he pulled out the self-developing picture, shaking it a few times, before showing them the result.

In the photo, Sasuke was slouching on the left (Sakura’s right from where they’d been facing), his hands in his short’s pockets. His eyes were pointing to his left, where Sakura was jumping into the air. The cameraman had managed to capture her startled jump just at the apex, somehow picking a moment when she looked like she was shouting rather than screaming in surprise. Her arms were up in the air while her small breasts were also pointing up a little from the **** of the jump, and her feet were back and behind her knees due to the jump. This made her legs spread out a little, which meant that her labia were not hidden at all, easily visible and front-and-center for anyone to stare at; her fluids thinly coating it to her immense horror. With Naruto also jumping next to her, it made it look like she was excitedly jumping in some banzai celebration pose, rather than jumping in shock.

Kakashi was in the background, but who cared about him when everyone would be looking at her naked body as she, to any casual observer, seemed to celebrate her graduation with an excited naked jump. Anyone who saw this would think she was an exhibitionist who was happy to be seen!

“This is the worst day of my life,” Sakura moaned.

“Uh, can I get a copy of this blown up?” Naruto whispered to the cameraman. Since it was Naruto, his ‘whisper’ was loud enough for the other teams to here, let alone Sakura.

“Absolute worst,” Sakura hissed.

Original Chapter by AkaB