Chapter 38: On the Branch Again

"Well, can you do it?" Hinata asked, then leaned in to whisper. "And if we do it this way, my family won't suspect we gave them anything. The Cloud can just claim some lost Hyuuga defected to them and impregnated a bunch of women."

I thought it over, and it 'sounded' like a good plan. But was it the right thing to do? I couldn't help but question the morality of our actions.

"Don't you think we should tell Naruto?" I asked her, my voice filled with uncertainty and a hint of guilt.

She looked torn, her voice filled with guilt. "No, he probably would disapprove of me abandoning a child. I don't approve of abandoning children either, but as long as they are treated well by the Cloud and since I won't be giving birth and the father won't be Naruto, I think I can live with it. But I don't want him to know. Does that make me a bad wife?"

"Maybe?" I said hesitantly as I wasn't sure myself. "Let me think about it. I won't tell Naruto for now, but I can't promise I won't change my mind." I said honestly.

Hinata went to speak but cut herself off when Naruto walked out of the bathhouse. His face was pale, and he looked like he was going to throw up.

"Naruto! What's wrong?" She asked, standing up to run towards him. I was still deeply thinking about our conversation, but I also wanted to ensure he was all right.

"Did something happen?" I asked, joining them.

Naruto's face was still pale, but he managed to smile embarrassedly.

"Pervy-Sage, er, shoved a frog down my throat. He said it was the key to the seal. I feel sick, and my throat is sore."

Hinata let out a snort, "First time?" I was glad to see she was getting more comfortable ribbing people, but I didn't think now was the time.

I playfully hit her arm, "Quit it, throat queen. It's okay, Naruto. I've heard of contracted animals being stored inside people. They use Yin and Yang to manipulate space; you shouldn't have any issues. But I have a special tea for aftercare after... similar activities. We have time before we need to meet Shino and Kiba. Let's go home for a bit, and I'll brew some for you."

...

We returned to the compound without issue and brewed the tea for Naruto's throat. I didn't use it myself as I had reinforced my throat like the rest of my insides, but I liked to have it for when I fucked someone's throat hard.

While struggling to drink his tea in the dining room, Naruto had a sudden thought and asked, "Do I hurt you two like this? Do you guys have to drink this after every time?"

Hinata turned bright red. "I d-don't bother with the t-tea. I don't think the pain is that bad, and I don't like the taste of the tea, b-but you and S-Sakura do a number on m-my a-ass..."

"And I made my body more resilient through drug therapy and chakra manipulation," I answered.

Maybe to save Hinata the embarrassment or perhaps because he was genuinely curious, Naruto asked, "Why does it taste so bad? Can't you make it taste better?"

"Well, I say it's tea, but it's just the same compound as the ass cream, but powdered and diluted in water instead of mixed into a cream. Next time, I'll add sugars and flavourings to make it taste better."

I explained. The truth was my mistress taught me never to make medicine taste good in case little kids got a hold of it, drank it all and overdosed. But since we had no kids in the house, I decided to do what Naruto wanted.

Naruto managed to force himself to chug down the last of the tea.

"Well, even if it tastes bad, I can already feel it working. My throat feels fine." Naruto said with a smile.

"Er, Naruto, it shouldn't be working that fast," I said. "You must heal faster naturally. Maybe it's due to the Nine-Tails, your bloodline, or a mixture of both."

"Oh, come to think of it, I remember healing fast after the fight with Kiba during the Chunin Exams. I thought it was 'cause of the medicine Hinata gave me, but Kakashi-sensei told me later it was because of the Nine-Tails, and that I should hide how quickly I recover from people when I get injured... Wait, does that mean I drank this disgusting tea for nothing?!"

Naruto looked annoyed at having drunk my tea for no reason. Hinata looked happy that Naruto remembered her gifting him that balm during the Chunin Exams, and I was lost in thought, trying to work out how the Nine-Tails was healing Naruto.

...

We arrived at the main gate and met up with Kiba, Shino and Akamaru.

"Good, you're early. Are we ready to depart?" Shino asked as we approached them.

"Ready!" We all answered at once.

"Okay, here is our formation. We will be in two teams, vanguard and rearguard. The vanguard will be Kiba, Akamaru and Naruto. Kiba and Akamaru will scout ahead as Naruto stands by, ready to cover attacks from the front and flanks with his clones. Behind him will be Sakura, acting as medic and second in command, as well as additional protection for Naruto. After Sakura is Hinata, who can scout from all directions and will watch our rear and flanks; lastly, I will cover the rear with my insects and command. Everyone maintain a distance of four metres in case of explosions."

"We will be travelling north around the mountain range into the Land of Sound, then northeast through the Land of Steam, then Frost until we cross into the Land of Lightning, where we will be escorted the rest of the way to the Cloud Village by their ninja. Understood?"

Shino waited for us to acknowledge the formation and route, then continued.

"We don't know if the Akatsuki is aware of our movements and if or when they will strike, so we must stay on high alert. Also, we will be passing through the Land of Sound. After the attack on the Leaf during the Chunin Exams, there has been constant infighting as factions try to claim the power gap left when Orochimaru was outed as their leader and went back into hiding. Most likely, they won't risk dragging the Leaf into their war by attacking us, but we must remain careful as there have been rumours of desperate ninjas turning to banditry to stay fed."

I again regretted killing Sasori before interrogating him about Orochimaru. Intellectually, I knew that Lady Tsunade was right. When fighting high-level opponents, you always had to go for the kill. If they barely survived, you could capture them, but you had to always fight with the intent to kill and take every opportunity to end the fight you saw before the tables turned.

However, hearing Orochimaru's name and being reminded again of him being on the loose doing who knows what to Sasuke and countless others, I deeply wished I could have gotten intel on him from Sasori, even if it was just his last known location. The Leaf was sure he wasn't in the Sound anymore, but I was getting distracted.

"Sakura!"

I was snapped out of my thoughts by Shino.

"Sorry, I was thinking of what to do once we reached the Land of Lightning," I immediately apologised and lied to cover myself. "I understand our formation, route and the possible dangers we face from both the Akatsuki and brigands."

"Good, but I was asking if you had perfected that genjutsu you have been working on," Shino said. I couldn't tell due to his sunglasses, but I thought he rolled his eyes.

"Genjutsu?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah, something I have been working on. Not sure how effective it will be in combat, but I can ensure you are all immune to it for around twenty-four hours."

"Well, we should do that before we leave. How is it done?" Shino asked.

I grinned. "You need to ingest some of my chakra-infused fluids."

Everyone looked excited at hearing that, apart from Shino.

"I hope you are taking this seriously?" He scoffed, and I mocked offence.

"Of course. I just need to kiss you all, and you'll be immune for around a day. It's the quickest way to transfer the immunity."

"Fine, but keep those obscene balls of fat away from my chest as much as possible."

He gestured at my tits, but I could tell he was just bantering. Although he was gay, Shino didn't hate women, nor was he disgusted by them or me in particular. I think he was just being playful and starting to hint at his sexuality subtly, so it wasn't so much of a surprise for Kiba when he fully came out later.

I wrapped my arms around him and kissed him deeply, transferring the infused saliva I gathered in my mouth into his. However, I kept my hands from wandering and didn't press my body up to his any more than necessary.

I then kissed the others, starting with Naruto. We kept things reasonably tame, but when it came to Hinata, she began to grope me, and I couldn't help but return the favour. Eventually, Shino began to cough, and we broke apart.

Kiba glared at Shino, but his smile returned when I sauntered to him. It had been a while (like a week) since I did anything with Kiba, so I took my time, rubbing his dick over his pants out of sight over the others while I made out with him and transferred my chakra-infused saliva. After we broke apart, he whispered, "What about Akamaru?"

"That was one time, and I was drunk—"

"I mean for the immunity."

"Oh, it's fine. My genjutsu only targets humans anyway, so he wouldn't be affected even if I tried—different brain chemistry."

I heard Akamaru whimper in disappointment. I bent over and petted him, trying to cheer him up. I must have been wiggling my ass subconsciously because I overheard Kiba talking to Naruto while Shino and Hinata went over our route in more detail.

"Damn... It's a shame she's off the market now. You're a lucky man, Naruto."

Kiba said, barely audible, while standing next to Naruto as they both checked out my big ass clad in my chakra-conjured pink mini-skirt.

"She isn't. We have a... special relationship." Naruto admitted.

"Really? Hinata, too?" Kiba asked with hope in his voice.

"That's more complicated, but yeah. Though me or Sakura need to be there. Sakura can do what she wants with other men."

Naruto explained, but didn't go into the details. I continued to pet Akamaru and let him lick my face as I wanted to keep listening.

I heard Kiba click his tongue. "Wouldn't be me. I'd never let one of my bitches even hold hands with another man. That's beta shit."

I snorted, and they both heard. I stood up, turned around and spoke.

"You have no bitches." That wasn't true; he had me. I couldn't deny that in the past, I let him use me whenever he wanted, but his attempt to belittle Naruto pissed me off.

Big dick or no, if he continued to do so, he wouldn't be getting anything more from me, and I'd even tell Hinata and Naruto to turn him down if he approached them for group fun. And I had the ear of a lot of the women in the village. I had blacklisted men before. I was the village whore. If I said no to a man, most women took notice and assumed I had a good reason.

Kiba was about to say something when Shino spoke up.

"It's time to leave; get in formation and keep conversation to a minimum."

With that, we fell into silent formation and left the village.

...

We covered a lot of ground over the next day. This made sense as we were still in Leaf territory, so there shouldn't have been any threats. However, we stayed on high alert as there was always the chance enemies could attack at any moment, especially if the Akatsuki had eyes on the village.

We made camp at night and set a watch. We weren't on a super fast timeline like with Gaara, so we allotted a full six hours of sleep for each of us. This meant we each had a two-hour watch while the others slept for six. Giving a total rest period of ten hours. The watch order was the same as our formation to keep things simple.

I was on my best behaviour and kept my hands and holes to myself. That went for Hinata and Naruto, too. Though the two of them were restless, it seemed the last few days had gotten their bodies accustomed to constant sex; though they stayed professional, we could all feel the sexual tension in the air when Kiba and Akamaru began the first watch, and the rest of us went to bed.

Nothing bothered us the first night, and we resumed our march through the Land of Fire. After two days, we crossed into the Land of Sound.

The air amongst us changed as we were now in a foreign land; as Shino said, we weren't at war with them, but they were in a civil war, so it wasn't safe to assume we wouldn't get caught up in a fight, either due to mistaken identity or bandits seeking food, ryo, equipment and, we had to be honest, women.

On our first day in the Land of Sound, around noon, Kiba radioed in activity up ahead.

"At least two groups fighting. There are around a dozen on each side that I can smell. Over."

"Take us around. Hinata, focus your Byakugan in front and look for traps and ambushes. Naruto, send some clones ahead. Sakura, you stay next to the real Naruto. Over."

We all complied and avoided the skirmish. Over the course of that day, we used similar tactics to avoid several more small-scale battles. The Sound was fighting each other, and it was not our mission to influence the outcome. That was the prerogative of the Foundation. I had no idea how many operatives were in the Sound, but I was sure there were at least a few on all sides.

The camp that night was even tenser than the previous ones, but for different reasons. At around two in the morning, there was a false alarm as another fight broke out near our camp. We silently got up and set out rather than look for a safer resting place. It was clear our presence in the land was known, but so far, no one had intercepted us.

The next day was tiring, as we didn't get much rest, especially for Kiba and Akamaru, who didn't get any sleep because we had to set out before their turn to sleep. But we were all ninjas and could operate without sleep for days if needed, especially with the use of stimulants. But it sucked! And not in the good way.

Traversing the Land of Sound took longer than planned due to all the detours we had to make to avoid the infighting Sound ninja, but eventually, we crossed into the Land of Steam. The Land of Steam was peaceful. Its main industry was tourism, not ninja missions; thus, its Hidden Village, the Hot Water, and the ninja they trained were mainly for policing and defence.

However, tensions were rising due to the turmoil in the Land of Sound. Meaning we had to use the official border crossing. If we had gone south, around the Land of Fire mountain range, we could have used the open border that most people used, but that would have vastly increased our travel time.

Shino spoke with the Hot Water ninja guarding the border and showed their captain all the documents proving we were Leaf ninjas just travelling through the Sound to save time. While he did so, Hinata and I got lecherous looks from some of the guards. I returned their gazes and nudged Hinata, who did the same after a moment of realisation and a little hesitation. I blew them a kiss, and Hinata giggled when one of them blushed and looked away.

Naruto came up behind us and put an arm around each of our shoulders.

"I wish we had time to go to the hot springs. Pervy-Sage dragged me to them all the time when we came to this country for his 'research,' though we always used the Land of Fire or Frost border. Never seen the guards so serious."

He gestured with his chin while still holding us in his arms to the captain grilling Shino.

"They must be worried about Sound ninja entering their land," Hinata suggested.

"Do you think they would attack them?" Naruto asked.

I shook my head; I knew what Hinata was getting at.

"No, I'm talking about the defeated Sound ninja. If one group is defeated, survivors may seek to flee and bring the conflict with them into their lands."

Hinata looked sad as she continued. "Though that also means civilian refugees will get turned away too."

"It ain't our problem, girl." It may have sounded harsh, but what I said was true. Though Naruto looked a little annoyed by my words, he didn't argue.

After a bit, Shino walked over.

"We need to wait about an hour for them to double-check who we are. Why don't you all take a break? We had a pretty rough time these past few days, and we should be safe next to the border crossing," he told us before going back to the border guard.

Kiba yawned, which caused all of us to do the same. We didn't have time to sleep, but we could at least sit and rest for an hour. We spotted a nearby bench, and we all took a seat. Akamaru curled up on the ground by Kiba's feet.

Hinata brazenly sat on Naruto's lap before I could.

"Bitch." I said with a smile, which she replied to by sticking her tongue out at me.

Kiba grinned and patted his lap as he sat beside Naruto. I rolled my eyes and squeezed between him and Naruto. Usually, I would have taken him up on the offer and sat on his lap, but I was still annoyed at him for indirectly calling Naruto a beta. Not only was that not the case, but I also hated the whole Alpha, Beta bullshit.

Hinata lay her head back on Naruto's chest, and I lay mine against his shoulder. We had really worked ourselves hard. We didn't fight anyone, but we were constantly on edge, ready for one, and jumping through trees all day, every day. Plus, we didn't get to make camp and rest the night before.

"Lucky son of a bitch." We heard Kiba mutter. I couldn't be bothered replying to him and just snuggled up closer to Naruto, resting my eyes. I didn't fall asleep, but I kept listening, and it felt nice not to be on high alert.

"I sure am," Naruto said, and I felt his hand grab my left tit and heard Hinata moan. My guess was he groped her, too.

"Fuck... Naruto, I will do anything you want if you let me fuck Hinata's sweet ass."

"Hey, what'm I, out-of-date milk?" I asked incredulously, still with my eyes closed.

"I'd never get tired of your ass, Sakura, but Naruto made it clear I need your guys' permission as well as Hinata's to fool around with her, whereas I know you'd be up for it. So what do you all say?"

Route and current position. The full world map can be found in the glossary.