Chương 31: Lemme Go!

"We're finally home!" Naruto shouted, as he jumped for joy. "No more soldier pills for this ninja! I'm heading straight to Ichiraku's and then I'm gonna order three bowls of chashu ramen with extra Naruto on top, anyone wanna come with me?"

How on Earth was Naruto still so lively!? After two days of travel, the Hidden Leaf's southern entrance gate had finally come into view— something for which Sakura was quite grateful. Shinobi running and jumping was hell on the shoulders and on the breasts' ligaments; especially for someone as blessed by the heavens as Sakura was.

It wouldn't do for her to start sagging ahead of time; and seeing as proper brassieres hadn't been invented yet, perhaps Sakura could corner the market in advance and make some extra money for herself…

"Ramen first thing in the morning?" Sasuke said in disgust. "No thanks."

Sakura had to agree; as good as it was, ramen was a bit too heavy to eat for breakfast. Besides, three bowls!? No, she was heading to the baths to take a dip in the hot water; that was the first thing she was going to do!

"Now, now, let's not fight so early in the morning," said Kakashi calmly. "We can all go for ramen together later. Now, I'm going to go on ahead, since there's something urgent I need to do first. I trust you can all find your way back to the village from here?"

"You're acting all mysterious again, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto complained. "Just tell us what this is all about, already!"

A messenger hawk had arrived to deliver a scroll to their sensei the previous evening; Kakashi had sent the hawk back with the scroll after jotting down a short reply on it. It was all very mysterious…

"You've all grown splendidly these past few weeks, so I decided to register you as candidates for the Chūnin promotion exams," Kakashi finally revealed. "It's not mandatory, so if you don't wish to participate, you can just go home for the day. But if you do want a shot at promotion, rendezvous in front of the academy building at three in the afternoon and wait for me there, and I'll hand you your application forms then."

And then he flickered away, leaving all three of his students behind.

"So, Sakura-chan, wanna go on a ramen date with me?" Naruto asked cheerfully.

"In your dreams, maybe," Sakura snorted.

"What if I get the top spot on the Chūnin exams?" Naruto then asked hopefully.

"Sure," Sakura said, laughing. "Why not."

Orochimaru would be launching his Konoha Crush plan during the arc's finale anyway, making it so there would never be a proper conclusion to the Chūnin exams. How was Naruto supposed to get first place in these circumstances? No, Shikamaru would be the only one to pass, because of that big, bulging brain of his…

The three Genin continued running towards the village, but as they approached the entrance gate, two familiar-looking Chūnin dressed in the village's flak jackets flickered in front of them. Sakura recognized them; she couldn't remember their names, but she was sure that they were proctors for the Chūnin exams! But what were they doing here…?

"Haruno Sakura?" a man wearing a bandage over his nose asked.

"That's my name," Sakura asked tentatively. "Is something wrong?"

"We'll be the ones asking questions here," said his companion, a man who wore his forehead protector like a bandanna, and whose right eye was covered by his fringe. "Follow us; this order isn't negotiable."

Sakura was beginning to get scared, and the Chūnin exams hadn't even begun yet! Kotetsu Hagane and Kamizuki Izumo, for that was their names, each grabbed Sakura by an arm and began dragging her away.

"Oi!" Naruto shouted furiously. "What d'you think you're doing to Sakura-chan!?"

"Official Barrier Team business, kid," Kotetsu shot back at him. "Your little friend's an impostor."

Sakura blanched; how on earth had they guessed that she was a reincarnator who had replaced the original Sakura!? Gathering her courage, she managed to cry out, "just tell Kakashi-sensei who took me, okay? I'm sure this is all a big misunderstanding, and we'll be able to take the Chūnin exams together!"

"That's our Sakura, no doubt about it," Sasuke said coolly. "Or are you telling me my eyes can't tell apart my teammate from a stranger?"

He activated his Two-Tomoe Sharingan to emphasize his point, but a third shinobi flickered between Sakura and Sasuke. Dirty blonde hair tied into a ponytail; Ino's father?

"You'll get your friend back after we check a few things with her, okay?" Yamanaka Inoichi told him calmly. "The faster we're done with this, the faster you'll get her back."

Naruto and Sasuke hesitated; they could tell that Sakura was scared, but they couldn't go against so many Chūnin and Jōnin at once. And besides, she was the real Sakura, so they weren't going to hurt her.

And so, Sakura was taken to a dark room inside a building nestled into Konoha's outer wall, where she was unceremoniously shackled to a table. Yamanaka Inoichi sat in front of her, while Izumo and Kotetsu went to stand guard at the door.

"Did you really think you could infiltrate the Hidden Leaf with such a shoddy disguise?" Inoichi said, instantly dropping the kindly expression he had been wearing when he had been talking to Naruto and Sasuke. "Your chakra signature doesn't match that of Haruno Sakura."

It took Sakura everything she had to keep herself from sighing in relief; so that's what this was all about! They hadn't guessed she was a reincarnator, they only thought she was a spy!

…Wait, that was equally bad!

An immense sensing barrier covered the entirety of the village like an invisible dome, and it was maintained by the barrier team. It had been created to detect enemy shinobi intrusions; when an unrecognized chakra signature penetrated the barrier, it would immediately alert the interception team to the enemy's location.

There was only one way to sneak past the barrier; a special Jutsu known only to Konoha's ANBU. Black ops off-the-book missions required absolute secrecy, so it obviously wouldn't be appropriate to leave tracks of comings and goings, and paper trails.

Long story short, since each shinobi had a unique chakra signature, the barrier team could easily differentiate imposters from the real deal!

Sakura quickly guessed what had happened to make them mistake her for an imposter. The problem was that her chakra signature changed every time she took foreign breast chakra into herself. The chakra she stole conserved its original properties; it wasn't added directly to her own reserves. In all likelihood, the interference from the stolen breast chakra's wavelengths had to be muddling her own, original chakra signature…

The sealing barrier wouldn't detect anything abnormal if she absorbed chakra within the village, but since Sakura had stolen breasts while out on her mission to the Land of Waves, Sakura's chakra signature no longer perfectly matched the one that had been registered with the barrier team when she had first left the village all those weeks ago!

'You've gotta be kidding me!' Inner Sakura fumed. 'Why am I getting stopped at the gate by the freakin' barrier team, of all things!? This isn't funny! The next arc starts at 4 P.M., so you'd better free me by then, shannaroooooo!'