Sakura's Trip to the Public Bath House

Otsutsuki Teuchi slowly opened his eyes, revealing lavender-coloured eyeballs, with irises of concentric circles like a mandala. He extended a single palm in front of him leisurely, and then pointed down.

"This world shall know back pain!" Otsutsuki Teuchi said calmly. "Almighty Push!"

Sakura shook her head; this was no time for daydreams.

Unfortunately for Naruto, she had missed the most important part about his speech; the part about him wishing to gain the village's admiration and becoming Hokage. It was a little sad, if you thought about it for more than two minutes: it was a definite cry for help from a lonely boy. In all likelihood, what had drawn Naruto to the original Sakura in the first place was the fact that she was even willing to interact with him, instead of outright ignoring him. Even if it was only by hitting him or telling him off…

"Next!"

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke," Sasuke began, looking rather broody. "I hate a lot of things, and I don't like many things. I don't have any dreams, but there is something I have to do. I have a duty to restore my clan…"

Sakura quickly scooted a small distance away from Sasuke, looking at him with wary eyes. The Uchiha clan had been annihilated, and as Sasuke was one of its last survivors, there was only one way he'd achieve that particular purpose; by making lots and lots of babies. With her, in the original timeline. Being turned into a girl was one thing, and getting pregnant was another!

"…And there's a certain someone I've sworn to kill."

An awkward atmosphere descended upon the four; talking about premeditated murder always had this sort of damper on conversations. For some reason.

"And last but not least, the young lady…" Kakashi-sensei said after a short while.

"I'm…I mean, I'm Haruno Sakura… I guess. My hobbies are…"

Sakura clapped her hands over her mouth to stop herself from talking. She stared at Kakashi-sensei cautiously; what a devilish trap! He'd asked her so matter-of-factly that she had almost revealed her real favourite activity! Sadly, that activity was lost to her forever, seeing as she had lost the necessary… equipment.

"Er… let's move on to my dream," Sakura continued, sweating bullets. "I want… I want to…"

Sakura froze, dumbfounded. What exactly was it that she wanted to do? By reincarnating as a girl, Sakura's dreams of creating a harem had been dashed to pieces, and she didn't even want to consider the possibility of a reverse harem!

"Do you, er… need a minute?" asked Kakashi, who hadn't expected introductions to take this long.

Should she copy Naruto and also say she wanted to be Hokage? No, she didn't want to sit behind a desk all day long and do paperwork. Should she say she didn't want to die? No, that wasn't a dream, that was just normal!

"I suppose it's also fine if you don't have any dreams," Kakashi sighed. "Then, any dislikes?"

"That one's easy," Sakura said in relief. "I hate bugs more than anything… eugh."

She shuddered. Especially c*ckroaches; they were the worst.

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About ten minutes later, the three newly promoted Genin were dismissed by their new Jōnin-sensei. And so, Sakura bid goodbye to her fellow teammates and stepped out into Konoha's busy streets, ready to go home and get some rest; tomorrow would be a long day, since they would be going on their first mission. Even though it would only be a combat test versus their Jōnin-sensei.

…

…

…

However, after wandering around the village for a good half hour, Sakura was forced to come to the conclusion that she didn't have any clue as to where home actually was. She had none of Sakura's memories, and the anime didn't exactly follow Sakura's trip home from school in detail.

Only bad shows used the time-honoured tradition of reusing the same animation loops every single episode to bloat airtime; good shows like Naruto preferred to cram filler between episodes to buy time!

"Why, if it isn't Sakura-chan! Have you also come to take a bath?"

Sakura turned around to see who was talking to her. It was a little old lady, but she had no idea who she was. A neighbour, perhaps? The old woman seemed to know who she was; if Sakura played her cards right and managed to wheedle some info out of her, maybe she wouldn't have to crash on a park bench tonight. Sakura then looked at the building in front of which they were standing; the Konoha bath house.

"Y-yeah!" said Sakura, trying to mask her nervousness with cheerfulness. "Nothing beats a hot bath after a lot of exercise!"

"Ohoho," the old woman chuckled. "To be young again. Why, in my day…"

"Why don't we talk inside?" Sakura immediately interrupted her. Old people tended to be long-winded…

"Of course, of course," the old woman laughed. "I can hardly wait to soak these old bones…"

Sakura and the mystery lady walked into the bath house and lined up to pay the admission fee. When it was her turn to pay, Sakura threw a few lecherous glances in the direction of the women's section as she was counting up her coins. The promised land, at last…

But just as the pair were about to enter the women's section on the right, the bath house's proprietor jumped out from behind his counter and seized Sakura by the collar.

"Hold on just one second," the proprietor barked at her. "Do you honestly think I've never seen young boys use the Transformation Jutsu to try and sneak into the women's baths?"

"Let go of me!" Sakura shouted. "I really am a girl, shannarooo!"

"You're not fooling anyone, you damn voyeur!" the proprietor bellowed back. "Why don't we see who you really are?"

He gave her a karate chop on the head, and… nothing. He frowned, before smacking her again. That was strange, a good hit was usually enough to dispel a Transformation Jutsu. His instincts had never betrayed him before, but could this girl… actually be a real girl? Maybe another punch would do the trick.

"Don't think I won't hit you back if you try that again," Sakura hissed at him as tears of pain and injustice streamed out of her eyes. She really had a girl's body, damn it! She didn't want it, but she might as well make the most of it!

"Let go of young Sakura-chan, you brute!" the old lady squawked at him angrily.

The proprietor gulped; it appeared he had just made a terrible mistake.