Battle of the Bulges

"Well, we've finally made it," said Jiraiya cheerfully, pointing at the scenic castle up ahead. "Tanzaku Town!"

'Thanks for the exposition, old man,' said Inner Sakura snidely.

After a few hours of travel, Sakura and company had finally made it to Tanzaku Town. It was your average castle city— the castle itself had been built on a hill during the Warring States era, and a bustling city had taken root at the foot of the hill, expanding over the surrounding area.

These days, the castle was nothing more than a tourist attraction. Actually, it reminded Sakura quite a lot of Himeji Castle, which she had visited with her parents and her older sister while on vacation in her previous life. And now that she was thinking about it…

'Hang on,' said Inner Sakura. 'The castle's still there!'

Thanks to Sakura finding Tsunade's location in advance, Jiraiya and company had made it to Tanzaku Town before Orochimaru. However, this also meant that Naruto had had that much less time to perfect his Rasengan…

"All right gang, let's split up," said Jiraiya seriously. "There's a lot of ground to cover, so you two'll focus on izakaya and gambling parlours. You can— ahem— leave the brothels to me."

"Why would an old woman like this Tsunade go to a brothel?" asked Naruto pointedly.

Could it be that the future Fifth Hokage financed her gambling addiction by selling her body!?

Sakura found this idea highly unlikely— real life wasn't like doujin. Sakura stared at Jiraiya suspiciously; it was more than likely that the old pervert only wanted to go in order to get a look at the local talent, for his own enjoyment…

At any rate, Sakura didn't want to go anywhere near a brothel for the foreseeable future.

A few days ago, she had accompanied Jiraiya on one of his 'investigation sessions,' to keep an eye on him; to make sure that he was actually doing his job properly and searching for clues. And by the end of that day, she had received more job offers than the number of times she had gone on ninja missions. Could it be that her true calling in life was to become a stripper!?

Still, even though she wouldn't have to go near any seedy establishments with this arrangement, Sakura was most emphatically not keen on splitting up— not while Orochimaru was hanging about. Even if she disliked the old pervert, she wouldn't hesitate to keep hugging Jiraiya's thigh if it meant not getting dissected by a mad scientist!

'It's too late,' Inner Sakura pointed out. 'He poofed away.'

Jiraiya had just used the Body Flicker to run away from his charges, even going to the extent of adding some smoke as a special effect to mask the direction in which he had escaped in.

"D'you wanna look for her with me?" said Naruto shyly, holding a picture of Tsunade between his fingers. "We've only got the one photo, ya know…"

'No need for the photo— I never forget a pretty woman's face,' said Inner Sakura proudly. 'Especially one as curvaceous as Lady Tsunade! …I'd still take the photo, though.'

And so, with the motto of safety in numbers in mind, Sakura began her search, followed closely by Naruto, who had his nose buried in Tsunade's photograph. Casinos, gambling parlours, pachinko places… Tanzaku Town was teeming with them, so this was going to take some time!

As Sakura and Naruto climbed up the steps to the castle district, they soon found themselves on a street where every single building was some sort of gambling establishment, judging by the ostentatious signs.

"Pick one," Sakura told Naruto.

He was this world's protagonist, so surely, he would be blessed by luck itself, right?

After overthinking it for a while, Naruto pointed to the first building to their right— just as Tsunade, Shizune and Tonton exited the building in a hurry.

Lucky!

"Why couldn't we have stayed a little longer, Lady Tsunade?" Shizune was complaining. "For once, luck was on your side!"

"I have a bad feeling about this place, that's all," Tsunade responded nervously. "The sooner we're gone…"

And that's when they spotted Naruto and Sakura.

"Oh look, Lady Tsunade," said Shizune cheerily. "It's some little shinobi from the village…"

Shizune's voice gradually trailed off as she took notice of Sakura's generous bust.

Just how old could this pink-haired kunoichi be!? Those things were nearly as large as her mistress's, while hers were washboard flat, even though she had to be older! Where was the justice in this world!?

"See?" said Tsunade angrily, turning to Shizune. "Trouble's already catching up to us!"

"You're the granny Pervy Sage had us searching for?" said Naruto in shock. "The one who can cure Kakashi-sensei!? You look exactly like your picture!"

He had assumed that Jiraiya had given him an old picture of her— and this lady in front of him sure didn't look fifty!

"And by Pervy Sage, Naruto means Jiraiya-sensei," said Sakura hurriedly. "My lady, we need to leave this place immediately."

However, instead of answering her, Tsunade simply stalked towards Sakura… before starting to grope her breasts, while Shizune quickly moved to cover Naruto's eyes, much to his disappointment.

"Kyaa!" Sakura squeaked in surprise. "La… Lady Tsunade!?"

Sakura had no idea Tsunade swung that way!

"Stop fidgeting," said Tsunade sternly. "What size were you before you started growing? How much time did it take; ah, lift up your shirt a bit—" Tsunade started feeling up Sakura's belly. "—before they grew to this size? How well do you know your parents' medical history?"

Sakura mentally counted the days since her transmigration. March, April, May, June, July, August…

"About half a year," Sakura answered, trying not to laugh as Tsunade's fingers tickled her. "Why do you ask?"

"It's not breast hypertrophy, since the texture is normal," Tsunade muttered to herself. "It's not ovarian granulosa cell cancer, either— your hormones are fine… Hm…"

As Sherlock Holmes had once famously said:

'When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.'

"You… you just have a large bust…" said Tsunade quite lamely.

"Y-yeah," Sakura responded awkwardly. "I'm aware…"

Tsunade sneaked one last look at Sakura— she was even bigger than she had been at her age, and it wasn't even due to a disease! In her youth, Tsunade had been completely flat— so she could scarcely imagine the heights this short pink-haired girl in front of her would reach in the future!