Sakura needs to pee. Is this the excuse she needed to leave?

Original Chapter by AkaB

If there was one area that Sakura's high intelligence shined, besides her quick learning, it was in her observational ability – when it didn't come to interpreting Sasuke's opinion of her, anyway. In Academy tests she had shown the ability to read a mock battlefield in a few moments. Unfortunately, that same skill had been a bit of a curse today.

The only time she found respite from the constant stares was in that brief moment every few seconds when she blinked. The rest of the time, her eyes and brain automatically tracked the sight-lines of each boy's eyes, calculating the geometry on the fly and cataloging which bit of her naked flesh they were staring at during that moment.

Except for the occasional glance at her taut stomach or her comparatively thin thighs, Choji had spent most of his time gawking at her underdeveloped breasts, a fascination that Sakura couldn't understand from anyone, especially a guy who (uncharitably but truly) had larger tits himself. Shikamaru seemed to have fixated on the side of her ass, even though the best view of that part of her was settled against Hinata's thigh and out of view. Both Lee and Naruto couldn't seem to take their eyes off her slit, maybe hoping that she'd spread it again for them. As for Kiba-

“Man, I still can't believe that you don't dye your hair,” the Inuzuka brashly said, his eyes clearly on the thin patch of pubic hair that was sticking to her wet skin.

Sakura barely stopped herself from growling at the boy, stomping down on the urge to place a hand over her crotch. Even if she hadn't been acting like being nude in front of them didn't worry her, though, she'd refuse to give the boy the satisfaction of seeing her hide away from him. Besides, she was very proud of her naturally pink hair and always got annoyed when anyone acted like she dyed it to be that way. If she wasn't terrified of people finding out about her exhibitionistic actions today, she'd almost have been happy for the word to get out that her carpet actually did match her drapes. “Hey, chakra sometimes does strange things to a family line's genetics. Everyone knows the ones where it becomes a bloodline, but sometimes it just changes something cosmetic. I don't see how pink hair's any weirder than all of the clans in this village who have no pupils but can still see.”

Feeling her living seat stiffen a little beneath her, Sakura quickly reached down and patted the girl's leg in reassurance. “I didn't mean anything bad by that, Hinata. And I was thinking more of Ino-pig's family than yours when I said that.”

Lee's eyes lit up. “Hinata? Neji's cousin, Hinata? I wondered who was lifting you up but I didn't want to interrupt whatever training they were doing that required it! I'm sure your cousin will be very impressed by your youthful hard work there, whatever exercise it is you're doing!”

Hinata whimpered as she realized that she'd been discovered. By this time tomorrow, Neji would surely know about her being here! What would her father say when her cousin tells him!?

With the Hyūga girl literally behind her, Sakura was just close enough to hear the faint whimper and feel the smaller girl starting to shake. Her sharp mind, which didn't currently have Sasuke around to ratchet up her hormones and turn her into an idiot, could immediately guess at the reason for the sound. Hinata would die if anyone she knew found out she was in here with a bunch of naked boys. Sakura could hardly blame the girl for the reaction, considering the lengths she'd been going to herself to pretend this situation was normal and not worth talking about outside of this group.

Her eyes narrowed as she stared down the newcomer across from her as she growled, “What do you mean, by that? Are you seriously going to do something as-” she hesitated for a moment, her mind running over everything the boy had said so far before picking the best word to shock him, “-unyouthful as telling stories about Hinata behind her back? The public baths are a place where people come to relax and put aside their worries while they soak with their friends! It's where we reveal our true selves, blemishes, scars and all, with no clothes to hide away our flaws! So it's no-one's business about who was here and what we were doing, to this 'Neji' guy or anyone else who didn't share our precious time here today!”

'What a load of bullshit!' Inner crowed. 'I think he swallowed it, though, so good job! Hinata should be safe. If we're super lucky, maybe the others will heed the warning too and not go blabbing about today.'

Lee shrunk further down into the spring with every angry sentence from the pink-haired girl. Conversely, the other boys, the ones who knew her, all actually looked a little more comfortable after her tirade. Sakura wasn't Sakura without the occasional angry outburst, after all. It was especially nice for Naruto, who was usually the one on the receiving end.

“I... I would never be so unhip as to do such a thing!” the bowl-cut boy eventually managed to protest. “You can rest assured that he will not hear anything from me!”

“He better not!” Sakura threatened, before she settled back, feeling Hinata relax in gratitude beneath her. Mentally, she prepared herself for more of being ogled.

Unfortunately, a niggling pressure that had been creeping up on her for the entire hot springs trip was really starting to become distracting. With every minute, the pressure doubled and she knew she wouldn't be able to ignore it for much longer. She really needed to pee. As it was, she was probably lucky she hadn't already done it involuntarily when Hinata had wrung that orgasm out of her.

'Wait... wait, this is an opportunity!' Inner said, her voice perking up in their shared mind. 'Going to the toilet block in the women's changing room would be the perfect excuse to leave for the day. We could get out of here without anyone thinking it was weird. We could even take Hinata with us – nobody thinks it's weird when girls go together!'

Sakura blinked as she turned the idea over in her head. Her Inner had a good point. She wouldn't even need to lie about needing to go to the toilet, she'd be telling the simple truth. It was perfect!

“Uh...” Every eye (sometimes reluctantly) looked up at her face as she drew their attention. “I hate to leave so early, but I actually really need to go to the toilet.” Before she could continue on, a voice interrupted her.

“That is not a problem,” Shino noted. Sakura barely stopped herself from startling – she'd forgotten he was even here! The boy really had no presence! “Why? Because there are some bushes over there you can use to relieve yourself.”

Sakura privately marked Shino's name down on her mental revenge list. Way, way up on the list. “Oh, I couldn't-”

Again, she was interrupted before she could dig her way out of this newest hole.

“That's a great idea!” Naruto exclaimed. “I kind of have to go too! Come on, Sakura!”

With that, the smaller boy leaped up and grabbed her hand, dragging her out of the spring and over to in front of (but not behind, like any girl would go) the bushes. In the future, his ability to drag people along with him through sheer exuberant force of will would serve him well as he turned various enemies into friends. Today, it helped pull a dazed Sakura along and had her unconsciously crouching down in a classic girls' peeing position before her brain caught up to what was going on.

'What the fuck just happened!?' Inner asked, flabbergasted, as they realized they were already in position to pee. 'We're not going along with this, are we?'

Before she could escape, she sensed various people surround her, cutting off her way out. Looking around, she saw that everyone, even the still towel-clad Hinata (whose eyes were on her rather than Naruto, Sakura presumed so that the girl could remain conscious), had gotten out of the pool to watch her.

Lee beamed down at her, before turning to the blond boy next to her and gave him a thumbs-up. “You are very lucky to have such a youthfully spirited girl on your team! We've had a couple of security scares with ambushes in our team during C ranks due to our female member separating from us to bathe and go to the toilet. You'll never have to worry about that!”

Naruto nodded. “Yeah, Sakura's really practical. I'm lucky to have her on my team!”

Sakura felt a chill run through her as she realized two things at once. Firstly, she'd left it too late to protest, meaning that everyone expected her to pee right here in front of them. In public! The last time she'd peed in front of someone else was when she was being potty trained! Secondly, Naruto was going to expect her to do this in front of him on every mission outside of the village from now on.

'Maybe we could swap with Sasuke instead?' Inner suggested.

_ 'How is that any better!?' Outer Sakura screamed into her mind. 'How many novels have we read where the couple romantically pees together!?'_

'Excuse me for trying to see a bright side to the dark hole you keep digging for us!' Inner huffed back.

Sakura bit her lip as she resigned herself. Fine, she was going to pee. But at least with her squatting down like this, and the bushes in front of her, the others wouldn't get a very good view of it.