The unsealing and the return trip to Konoha were largely uneventful.
Leaving behind a few kunoichi to guard their ancestral home, the Manyū clan migrated a short distance away to the Hidden Leaf, and they were immediately led to the refurbished Uchiha District, which would become their new home. Team 7, Lady Utatane and the Manyū clan's representatives were then taken to the Hokage Residence to meet with the Fifth Hokage. After exchanging a few pleasantries with the new Manyū patriarch and reading through Team 7's mission reports, Tsunade dismissed everyone but Sakura.
Barely had the door of the Hokage's office closed behind the Manyū family's representatives than Tsunade's booming voice shook the entire building, startling Kyōko and her husband Munakata, who had been named interim patriarch until a more suitable candidate could be found.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO YOURSELF, YOU IDIOTIC GIRL!?"
Sakura stood frozen in front of Tsunade's desk like a cow caught in a thunderstorm. And though fitting, calling her a cow was perhaps an understatement— her figure was a testament to the infinite variations a woman's body could take, her breasts surpassing in size even the most bountiful of dairy cows' udders.
"Just look at yourself!" shouted Tsunade, reaching over the desk and seizing two handfuls of Sakura's breast flesh through her dress, squeezing and shaking her massive U-cup knockers. "Have you lost your mind!? Just how big are those things!?"
"135 centimetres, Milady," said Sakura proudly, arching her back and thrusting out her chest. "My girls have come a long way, don't you think?"
Tsunade's face flushed with anger, and she had to take a deep breath to steady her nerves. Clearly, there was room for nothing in her disciple's head but breasts, but this wasn't Sakura's fault. She would have a word with that old crone, Utatane Koharu, for making her disciple go along with this…
"Girls? More like elephants," Tsunade snorted. "Why aren't you using that jutsu I taught you? Doesn't your back hurt?"
"Yes," Sakura admitted sheepishly. "But I haven't got round to adjusting my ideal form yet," she added. "The old one's size differential is too great, and it drains too much of my chakra."
Speaking of chakra, Sakura had no idea where she stood in regard to how many Kakashis could fit inside her. Her attribute panel was still frozen and bugged out, and the System remained unresponsive. It was beginning to get rather worrisome.
"Then get it done as soon as possible," Tsunade said. She then sighed, and looked into Sakura's eyes, her gaze softening. "Sakura. Come over here, for a moment."
Sakura stepped around the desk, and Tsunade gently took her hands into her own. Her heart fluttered. Was this actually happening!?
"Yes, milady?" Sakura said, her voice quivering slightly. "Was there something else?"
"I hope you realise you've made a significant contribution to the village by getting the Manyū clan to join the Hidden Leaf," Tsunade said quietly. "But from what I've heard from Kakashi… the village spent almost nothing to obtain this opportunity. Most of the concessions came from you."
Lifting the Uzumaki seal had cost Naruto a bit of blood, but nothing more. As for housing, Tsunade had already ordered the Uchiha District to be renovated, so it had cost the village nothing to place new, willing taxpayers into the empty houses!
The Manyū had asked for none of the usual things clans demanded when joining an established hidden village: land, businesses, artefacts, money, jutsu, special privileges, and so on. All they wanted was Sakura's firstborn child— in other words, their main family's Kekkei Genkai meant more to them than anything else the richest village in the world could possibly have offered them.
"That's okay, Lady Tsunade," Sakura assured her, patting her chest. "So what if my boobs grew this huge? So what if I have to change my name and give up my first baby? I'm proud to do it for the village."
…
Officially, Lord Munenori had named Sakura as the successor to the Manyū's secret arts, but that wasn't such a big deal, since she had already started her adventure in possession of the first of the two Manyū Scrolls of Secrets. Official recognition or not, she still possessed the secret knowledge to cultivate beautiful, plentiful breasts.
But even though she was the all-important successor, that wasn't to say she had any say in the clan's decision-making. The true master of the Manyū family had always been the patriarch, and it was to this person that Sakura would eventually have to relinquish her firstborn. But to her, that was still something she couldn't fully wrap her head around.
In Sakura's mind, if she truly wanted children to raise, then she would simply make more after the first… and that was exactly why she still lacked a mother's heart, and her template progress had stagnated.
…
Tsunade felt deeply ashamed.
The Will of Fire she had been raised with was not the one the children at the academy now learned. It was this disgust at Konoha's transformation into a child meatgrinder— and also her own haematophobia— that had driven her to leave the village after the Second Shinobi World War. And now, under her watch, the young were being forced to sacrifice themselves for the old guard, once again…
"No, this isn't right, that old crone had no right to sign off on this deal," said Lady Tsunade brusquely, slamming her fist on her desk. "I'm going to drag that patriarch back here and persuade him to renegotiate. I'll make him an offer he can't refuse, just you wait…"
"Wait, Lady Tsunade!" Sakura called hurriedly, hastening to catch up with her mistress as she strode towards the door. "Speaking of which, there's something important I've been meaning to discuss with you!"
Tsunade ignored her and kept walking.
"We need to talk about the Root!"
Tsunade froze as she reached for the doorknob.
"The ANBU Black Ops training division?" said Tsunade slowly. "I remember reading it was dissolved under Sarutobi-sensei's orders nine years ago. What about it?"
"When I delivered Miss Kyōko's baby, we were attacked by Kikaichū," explained Sakura. "Aburame clan insects took away her child and many others. I'm sure of it."
Tsunade started pacing around the room in circles.
"The only people who knew about the expedition were the higher-ups, right?" insisted Sakura. "Who else but Danzō could have organised something like this? He even had Lady Utatane come with us!!"
Tsunade stopped dead in her tracks.
"Everything Black Ops-related is strictly confidential," said Tsunade slowly. "Who told you about all this? Was it Kakashi? Yamato? Or did you go poking your nose where it doesn't belong again?"
Two and a half years ago, Danzō had illegally ordered his people in the ANBU to abduct Sakura in broad daylight, but thanks to Kakashi and her friends, she had avoided becoming just another statistic.
"It was Kakashi, wasn't it?" Tsunade sighed. "Well, I suppose it couldn't be helped, then…"
Tsunade called to mind the mission reports Sakura and the others had submitted. The onslaught of the unknown summoned beast, the kidnapping of the children… yes, this had Danzō written all over it. She tried to place herself in his shoes; what would that man do if an unknown clan of kunoichi were discovered within the country's borders?
Even assuming he hadn't figured out the true nature of Sakura's Kekkei Genkai, it would have been a prime opportunity to test out a new secret weapon on an unsuspecting village as well as recruit fresh soldiers… could it be that Root had gone underground rather than disbanding?
"Lady Tsunade," said Sakura pleadingly. "Please allow me to investigate."
Tsunade had long suspected that Danzō was up to something behind her back, yet she had never uncovered definite proof of his scheming in the records. No money flowing out of the village's coffers and disappearing under dubious circumstances, and the statistics of ANBU operatives falling ill, dying in action, or going missing in action altogether hardly wavered from year to year.
Every member was accounted for at all times and always ready to follow the Hokage's command.
"Or maybe…" Tsunade muttered to herself. "The books are too clean."
On the surface, the records of disappearances appeared perfectly ordinary, following the same trend year after year. Deaths were inevitable in this line of work, and to be expected. The ANBU had always suffered a high turnover rate; its operatives led far more perilous lives than the average mission ninja.
They often perished without leaving a trace of their bodies behind; self-incinerating as protocol dictated, naturally.
But just how likely was it that nearly the same number of operatives went missing each year? Statistically speaking, having the exact same KIA or MIA numbers year after year was astronomically improbable across nine years. Even counting deaths unrelated to this potential conspiracy, even if it was currently peacetime, a mild uniformity across the past nine years ought to be highly suspicious!
"Sakura, you're dismissed," said Tsunade abruptly. "I need to go check on something."
If the bulk of the disappearances were former training division graduates rather than ordinary shinobi handpicked by the Third, Fourth, or Fifth Hokage from the ranks of mission ninja, then she would at last have definite proof that something decidedly sketchy was going on!
That maybe, the ANBU was being slowly drained to replenish the Root's numbers…
"But Lady Tsunade—"
"I said dismissed!" Tsunade thundered. "Get out and get training, already! I don't want to see your face until you can fit into one of my dresses!"
And just like that, Sakura was unceremoniously kicked out of the Hokage's office. When she turned to complain, the door slammed in her face. Grumbling under her breath, she shoved her hands into her pockets and stalked down the stairs, entirely unaware of the tiny insect flitting after her…