"Sakura-chaaan!" came Fū's voice from somewhere above the treetops. "Above youuu! Look up!"
Sakura glanced up as she sprinted alongside Naruto and Sasuke through the forest, catching a blur of movement through the leaves as a shadow flitted across the face of the moon. Moments later, the buzzing of what sounded like the biggest mosquito in the world filled her ears as Fū swooped down, clutching something in her arms.
"Go home, Fū!" Sakura said breathlessly, one arm clamped across her chest as she ran. "We're not playing games here!"
"Don't you want your stuff?" Fū said, holding up a bundle of clothes. "You forgot to turn off the heat before leaving your room. They almost burned up along with the inn!"
Sasuke was dressed for battle, but Naruto and Sakura were still loosely wearing the yukata that had come with their room, garments that were hardly designed for long-distance running. To make matters worse, they had lost their indoor slippers a few kilometres back.
Naruto and Sakura stopped in their tracks.
"Yes, please!"
Their hotel yukatas were all torn up from moving through the undergrowth at a ninja's running pace. Running barefoot was not especially pleasant either, even though the tough soles of their feet could take it.
Fū began distributing the articles of clothing she had gathered before the ryokan burned down. There was one extra-large, heavy-duty brassiere, one Hokage cloak, one set of erotic, see-through lingerie, courtesy of Jiraiya... and two pairs of standard-issue Hidden Leaf combat sandals.
"Where's my dress/jumpsuit, ya know!?" Sakura and Naruto blurted out as one.
"That's all I could find!" Fū said, laughing.
Sakura coughed.
"The Hokage's robes represent the dignity of the office," she said solemnly. "I couldn't possibly hand them over to someone the village hasn't elected…"
"Well, I'm not wearing that!" Naruto said, pointing at the pink lingerie with a trembling finger. "I'd rather fight naked, ya know!"
The moment he let go of the frayed edges of the yukata he was very loosely wearing, it would fall around his ankles, and since he had thrown it on straight after coming out of the bath, he was wearing absolutely nothing beneath the fancy robes. Since he couldn't possibly admit he was going commando for fear of Sakura thinking he was some kind of weirdo, he had to get those Hokage robes, no matter what!
As for Sakura, she was in much the same situation, though she was faring marginally better, since she was still wearing the same pair of panties she had put on that morning before heading to the north-eastern front, and since Fū had managed to save her bra from the flaming wreckage of the ryokan.
Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Just use the Transformation Jutsu, numbskull," he said. "As long as you don't get hit, you'll be fine."
"Why don't you give me your clothes, if you're so confident?" Naruto shot back angrily. "As long as you don't get hit, the Transformation won't be dispelled, and nobody will know you're a pervert who likes to wear women's underwear, ya know!"
"Just who's a pervert who likes to wear women's underwear?" Sasuke hissed. "Could it be the idiot who keeps using perverted techniques like the Harem Jutsu?"
Sasuke had a point about Naruto's sexuality, but now wasn't the time to be embarking on journeys of self-discovery. Sakura could sense the monster Satori crashing through the forest after them, with thirty thousand men in hot pursuit.
"Help me with my sandals and my bra," Sakura said urgently. "It'll take me ages to do it on my own, and the enemy will catch up any minute now."
Due to the sheer immensity of her breasts, Sakura had difficulty reaching over her chest to find her feet. It was also rather challenging to contort herself enough to bring them within reach to put on her footwear, so she usually had her mother help her before she left for work. As for her sarashi, bras, and dresses, she would normally summon a small army of Shadow Clones in her bedroom to help dress her.
"I'll do the sandals!" Sasuke said immediately.
"I'll do the bra!" Naruto said without missing a beat.
Sasuke and Naruto exchanged a sideways glance, both muttering "pervert" under their breaths, as Fū flitted above the treetops to reconnoitre their surroundings. Several columns of smoke rose into the sky here and there across the forest, while a faint orange glow stained the horizon in the darkness of the night. Evidently, a few splinter groups had broken away from the invading army's main force to sack the neighbouring villages…
"Phew," Sakura sighed as Naruto fumbled with trembling fingers at her minimising bra's hooks. "Finally, back at a manageable size…"
A flat-chested, D-cupper like Karin would never understand the pain of having such huge boobs… if she did, she would have given her a front-clasp bra, rather than a back-clasp model.
"The monster's almost here!" Fū cried. "Hurry up!"
"Fū, come back!" Sakura shouted as Fū flew off like an arrow. "Don't be a hero, we'll take it on together!"
"Done!" Sasuke shouted as he hooked the Velcro straps into place. "You're good to go!"
The sound of splintering wood and crashing trees swelled through the forest as the dark beast trundled onwards, its sickle-like claws carving through thousand-year-old trunks as though they were nothing more than soft butter.
"Scatter!" Sakura yelled.
Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura leapt out of harm's way as Satori crashed through the treeline, furiously swiping at them despite the sticky, silken threads Fū was spitting out in an attempt to bind it. It flapped its wings, sending a hail of sharpened black feathers towards Sakura, who knocked them aside with a volley of crystal shuriken.
[Ding! The code has been successfully analysed. Due to the mirrored nature of the Limited Tsukuyomi and the Spiritual Plane, the code provided by the Namikaze Minato of the dream world should be the reverse of the real one. Reading it backwards should yield the expected results.]
"It's about time!" Sakura shouted as the lines of translucent ones and zeros shifted before her eyes on her System panel. "Well, here goes nothing…!"