Two years passed.
During this time, just like in the original work, Naruto left the village with Jiraiya for training.
After all, Sasuke had already left, so Naruto had no reason to stay either.
On the day of his departure, Sakura came to see him off.
"Naruto... onegai. In the future, you absolutely have to bring Sasuke back. Without Sasuke, watashi..." (T/N: It's written like this in RAW.)
Naruto grinned and gave a thumbs-up.
"Don't worry, I'll definitely bring Sasuke back. That's the promise of my lifetime!"
Jiraiya stood nearby, a helpless smile on his lips.
"Alright, alright. Let's go."
The two figures gradually disappeared into the morning mist.
Poor Sakura was quite unlucky.
Because Makoto had already had the Bunny Girl Senpai, Sakurajima Mai, cut in line, Sakura failed to become Tsunade's disciple, so her development wasn't as good as in the original work.
But it didn't matter anyway. The only role she could play in the original work was as an add-on for the final battle between Naruto and Sasuke.
After all, win, become Hokage... lose, marry Sakura.
During these two years, the sisters Hinata and Hanabi basically lived at Makoto's place.
Of course, Hiashi had no objection to this.
In fact, he was quite surprised. His two daughters, including Hinata whom he had already given up on, were making astonishing progress.
He thought, 'No wonder Nishikawa Makoto had so many powerful women around him... his teaching level was that strong.'
However, this old father was overthinking it.
It was purely because his two daughters had cheats.
Two years passed, and the girls' bodies grew more mature.
But honestly, for girls like the Aizono sisters and the Nakano quintuplets, they were just returning to their real-world appearances, nothing new.
On the other hand, the original Konoha youngsters caught Makoto's attention.
Especially Hinata.
In the original work, even when she couldn't get enough to eat, she still reached that size.
And because she could eat her fill every day these past two years, now that she was about to turn sixteen, her capacity was already not much less than Tsunade's.
Whenever Makoto saw Hinata, he couldn't help but look twice.
At the hot spring at the back mountain of the Ninja World Government.
After a day of training, the girls were bathing here.
At the moment, the hot spring pool was filled with warm steam and mist.
Not only were Makoto's women there, but also the Kunoichi of the Konoha Twelve, like Sakura, Ino, and Tenten.
The girls formed their own small groups and chatted with each other.
Mrs. Sakurajima came to her daughter's side and asked while wiping her shoulder with a towel:
"How are your studies going by that Hokage-sama's side?"
Mai leaned against the edge of the pool, the water just covering her collarbone, and replied tiredly:
"It's tough, but I can barely keep up."
Mai's talent wasn't bad, at least not inferior to Sakura's from the original work.
But the problem was she started too late. At best, she had only been learning Ninjutsu for a little over two years. Fortunately, she worked hard, so her progress over these two years was significant.
Mrs. Sakurajima was clearly not satisfied with this answer. "You need to train harder. Don't disappoint your father..."
At this point, Mrs. Sakurajima quickly corrected herself.
"Don't disappoint Leader-sama's expectations of you."
The corner of Mai's mouth twitched violently twice, and she whispered, "I know."
"I wonder how Sasuke is doing..."
Haruno Sakura, soaking in the hot spring pool, murmured to herself.
Ino beside her couldn't help but roll her eyes.
"Sakura, are you still thinking about Sasuke?"
Two years had passed, and there had been no news of Sasuke at all.
But now, everyone in Konoha's Ninja circles knew that Sasuke had joined that dangerous organization called [Akatsuki].
Although there was no news yet of Sasuke doing any evil deeds, the Land of Fire had already classified him as an S-rank Missing-Nin.
Ino, who had also been a fan of Sasuke, had basically given up on the idea of him.
After all, Ino was considered a descendant of a somewhat notable clan and couldn't possibly get involved with a wanted criminal.
However, Sakura didn't take such things to heart.
After all, in the original work, Sasuke tried to kill her at least twice, and she still married him. Joining the Akatsuki was nothing compared to that.
"I'm just... asking casually."
Sakura buried her face in the water, her voice muffled.
Ino sighed, shook her head, and stopped trying to persuade her.
Just then, Sakura noticed Hinata, who was soaking opposite her, had been sitting with her head down, not speaking.
Sakura thought the girl was just shy and smiled comfortingly.
"It's okay, Hinata. We're all girls."
"No, that's not it..."
Hinata looked up, her face red.
Her hands were desperately covering her chest, her fingers interlaced as if holding something down.
"As s-soon as I let go, it floats up..."
Sakura: "..."
Ino: "..."
Seeing the hint of fair skin exposed between Hinata's arms, Sakura, Ino, and the others couldn't help but swallow hard.
'Damn, were they really that big?'
"So many people... so scary..."
In contrast to the faux-emotional Hinata, the truly frightened Bocchi shrank in the corner, trembling.
"Honestly... Bocchi-chan, you haven't made any progress at all..."
Helpless, Nijika, who acted as the mother figure in Kessoku Band, had to forcibly pull her out of the corner and into the pool.
"W-Wait a second!"
Bocchi's scream echoed over the hot spring.
Seeing that usually unremarkable little pink-haired girl's astonishingly huge twin thunders, Sakura, also a pink-haired girl, took massive damage.
'So annoying... how come every single one of them is so exaggerated...'
Besides the girls, the Pokémon of Kessoku Band also had towels on their heads and were soaking in the pool.
Of course, only the female Pokémon got this treatment.
The male ones were in the men's bath next door.
That included Pochita, the large squirrel Ragnir, and Ryo's Meowth.
But even though it was called the men's bath, basically only Makoto used it.
Because Yu and the others knew that Makoto often did all sorts of things with the girls in the bath, so they never bothered him.