Sakura squirmed in her chair behind her desk. A constant flush clung to her cheeks, and she found herself unable to focus on any of the documents Shikaku had placed before her. The words seemed to slip from the page each time she tried to concentrate…
"Maybe a little nap…"
The Inuzuka bloodline had boosted her senses of smell and hearing to superhuman levels. She'd spent hours tossing and turning in bed, listening to the ultrasonic squeaks of the mice living in the walls of her house and the pitter-patter of rat feet in the streets, and gagging on the noxious aftermath of the fires set off by Deidara's bombs.
"What's wrong with me?" Sakura mumbled to herself in her empty office.
Even though she had fallen asleep the previous night with a hand in her panties, she had woken up the following morning stewing in the damp aftermath of her own arousal, in a puddle of her own sweat and lubricative juices. This was the sort of thing that happened when she went too long without release, and yet it wasn't as though she had denied herself, not from yesterday until now…
Sakura was only slightly sleep-deprived; she was simply incredibly horny.
A knock suddenly came at the door. "Lady Sixth, you wanted to see us?"
"Kyaah!" Sakura yelped in surprise. "Er, yes… coming!"
It took Sakura a few seconds to remember that she had scheduled a meeting with Naruto and his father. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself and wipe the sweat from her brow with a handkerchief, before tottering unsteadily to the door, her legs as shaky as a newborn fawn's.
"Yo, Sakura-chan!" Naruto said, beaming at her. "I told dad it'd be fine just to walk in, but he said it would be rude, ya know?"
"You're the only one who doesn't bother knocking before walking into the Hokage's office," Sakura said, flustered. "Well, come on, follow me, we're going to the Third Training Ground…"
Before leaving, Sakura created a Shadow Clone and left her in charge of womanning the office, though she wasn't sure just how much paperwork she'd be able to get through in her current state.
"Are you okay, Sakura-chan? You're all red, ya know?" Naruto asked worriedly as they walked out of the Hokage Residence. "Do you have a fever?"
He lifted his forehead protector and pressed a hand to his brow to compare his temperature to Sakura's. "You're burning up, ya know!"
"Don't touch me, you're only making it worse!" Sakura gasped, batting away his hand. "Hands to yourself!"
…
On the way to the Third Training Ground, Naruto, Minato, and Sakura crossed paths with Team 8, who were making their final preparations before heading to the eastern coastline, the predicted frontlines of the war with Kirigakure. As they passed one another, Kiba and Sakura both started sniffing at the air at the peculiar scent they were smelling from each other, and in that moment, Sakura realised she was in heat.
"Now I get it," Sakura groaned. "It's the springtime of youth…"
"What was that?" Minato said, turning to her and smiling pleasantly.
"Nothing!"
As the expression says, March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. Sakura's seventeenth birthday was almost upon her, but more importantly, so was spring, the season of renewal.
As far as mammals went, humans were somewhat unusual in that they remained in a constant state of fertility throughout the year. In the case of the more beastlike members of the Inuzuka clan, it seemed as though they were mostly like ordinary humans, except they were prone to slipping even further into oestrus as the days grew warmer.
Sakura was not quite sure how to feel about her body making decisions without her consent, but this was the price of having superhuman senses. Of course, there was one easy way of getting rid of this downside, and that was to get pregnant…
"No, no, no!"
Sakura quickly shook her head. What was she thinking? Getting a bun in the oven was quite possibly the worst thing that could happen to her right now! There was no guarantee the war would wrap up before she started showing!
Naruto stared bemusedly at Sakura as she made funny expressions in reaction to her own thought process. She was really cute when she was thinking…
"Well, here we are," Minato said. "The Third Training Ground."
Sakura did a double-take. Just when had they arrived!?
"Right, I knew that," Sakura said, coughing into her fist. "Well, long story short, we met another Nine-Tails last night, and it felt much stronger than Naruto's, so I'm going to go out on a limb and guess you didn't seal all of the Nine-Tails inside Naruto here. You sealed the other half inside yourself, right?"
"It's true," Naruto interjected. "That other Nine-Tails was incredibly black, ya know."
Of course, Sakura was talking out of her arse, since she was getting her information from the anime, but since there was no time to waste, she had greatly abridged her explanation. She needed to get Naruto to befriend Nine-Tails and master Tailed Beast Mode as soon as possible, because they were going to need all the firepower they could get… just in case.
"I… that's some deduction, but yes, you're indeed correct; I did seal the Nine-Tails' Yang half inside Naruto and the Yin half inside myself," Minato said, astonished. "No wonder the villagers elected you to be Lady Tsunade's successor…"
Sakura clapped her hands happily.
"That's great, then!" she exclaimed. "I'm assuming it was awfully dark and boring inside the Shinigami's belly, so you must have become friends with the Nine-Tails to stave off the loneliness, right?"
It was a wonder the First and Second Hokage had not gone insane, their souls confined within the Soul Reaper for over two years with only that old fart Sarutobi Hiruzen for company. Sakura was certain that, had it not been for the Nine-Tails' presence, Minato would have long since lost his mind over the past sixteen years.
"I wouldn't call us friends just yet, but we do get along rather well," Minato said, rubbing the underside of his nose sheepishly. "I'm sure Ku— I mean, I'm sure the Nine-Tails would love to see what his other half has been up to these past few years."
Since the Hidden Leaf was now at war with the Hidden Cloud, there was no way Naruto was getting onto Genbu the Island Turtle. Without the Falls of Truth and the Tailed Beast Temple, this was the best way of getting Naruto to befriend his furry little problem!