Thankfully, no enemies were waiting for the expeditionary party upon their return to the shinobi continent.
That being said, the forest was still filled with traces of recent human activity. It seemed that those who had previously fled in defeat had returned to see what had happened to the Hidden Leaf Village upon its sealing, but finding nothing of interest except a flat, razed wasteland in the middle of the forest, they had recently broken camp and gone off somewhere else.
The ANBU and Intelligence Division Teams quickly scattered as they departed for the areas they'd been assigned to collect information from; the Sealing and Research & Development Teams made their way to Tanimagakure to upgrade its security and to set up the radio equipment respectively; leaving Team 7, Team 10 and the remaining teams to handle the search-and-rescue operation.
"Be careful, I sense a few foreign chakra signatures in the surrounding area," Sakura reminded the other rescue teams as they set out from the arrival zone. "As there are still enemy troops in the region, this is a stealth mission, so prioritise remaining undetected where possible."
Sakura wasn't certain what the other villages thought of the Hidden Leaf's disappearance, but looking through the treeline at the scorched nothingness where the village used to stand, she wouldn't be surprised if they thought they were all dead.
The secret of the Hidden Leaf's survival would leak out sooner or later, when their prisoners finally found their way back to their comrades, but that would take some time; more than half of them were severely weakened after being turned into women. The former men would be unable to mould chakra for a while, leaving them even feebler than civilians, while the women would be too busy caring for them to cause any real damage as they dragged them back home under the supervision of a few Leaf troops.
"Would you mind if our cell tagged along with yours for part of the way?" Shikamaru said as he approached Team 7. "Ino's sensing isn't especially well suited to tracking, and since there doesn't seem to be any friendlies nearby, we've got no idea where to start looking, yeah…"
Since Asuma was (still) dead, Team 10 was being temporarily captained by Yamato.
"You're just being lazy again, Shikamaru!" Naruto snorted, knowing that Sakura wanted Team 7 to travel alone to avoid being seen blowing up like a balloon. "Find your own people to save, ya know!"
"Don't be rude, Naruto," Kakashi said lightly. "Sure, I don't see why not…"
Sakura's stomach growled loudly as Chōji tore open a bag of crisps and stuffed a handful down his gullet. She was so hungry… she hadn't eaten anything for breakfast, and she didn't intend to eat anything until she had improved her chakra control.
As it was, she could just barely use D-rank techniques, Kekkei Genkai abilities that relied more on instinct and the latent talent in her blood than on actual skill, and a handful of jutsu— such as the Shadow Clone Jutsu and the Great Fireball Jutsu— that did not demand too much finesse. Anything requiring even a modicum of chakra control— such as Chakra Enhanced Strength, the Mystical Palm Jutsu, and most of her other signature abilities— was beyond her.
Ino fixed Chōji with a reproachful stare, and with a reluctant sigh, he held out the bag to Sakura.
"Wan' sum?" Chōji said with his mouth full, spraying crumbs everywhere. "Special consommé flavour. They're an acquired, mmph, taste; I took these specially out of my special stash to celebrate getting out of the hospital. Munch."
Ōnoki had launched a disintegration beam through Chōji's shoulder while the lad had been in giant form, leaving behind a massive hole, but the medics had patched him up pretty well.
"No thanks," Sakura said with a grimace as her stomach roared. "I'm on a diet— I mean, I'm not hungry."
"I'll say, I was wondering what was different about you," Ino said sweetly, pursing her lips as she gave her a pointed once-over. "Your cheeks are looking a little round, aren't they?"
Sakura bit back a withering reply about Ino's own looks. Much to her dismay, the other girl was just as thin as ever, even though she had pumped her full of Akimichi breast chakra, so there was nothing about her appearance that she could insult.
"I'll let you come with us if you let me touch your boobs," Sakura said, wiggling her fingers in a suspicious manner. "For research purposes, of course… I just want to see if the breast chakra I gave you is settling in well."
"As if I'd let you grope me again, you perverted lesbian!" Ino hollered, hugging her plump F-cup chest defensively. "Come on, Shika, Chōji, and Captain What's-His-Face, we're out of here!"
Naruto breathed a sigh of relief as Team 10 started walking away, the three youths discussing amongst themselves what level of thicc was preferable on a girl's frame, with a depressed-looking Captain Yamato dragging his feet along behind them."Guys like a girl with a bit of meat on her bones," Shikamaru was saying, but Ino wanted to hear nothing about his crackpot theories, preferring to stick to her own standards of beauty.
Once they were gone, Sakura started sniffing at the air in a rather unladylike fashion.
"Kun, kun~" she went, pacing around a tree. "I can smell Sasuke's scent in the air… and judging by the potency, he was here no less than five days ago…"
Ignoring the wide-eyed looks Naruto and Kakashi-sensei were giving her, Sakura stooped down and started sniffing around the base of the tree.
"Kun, kun~" Sakura went on as she continued sniffling around. "Hmm, yes, delightful… that's definitely Sasuke-kun's aroma I'm tasting, I'd know it anywhere… judging by the diffusion gradient vector, he went… that way!"
Without warning, Sakura stood up and whirled around, pointing at Naruto, the abrupt movement sending her massive chest smacking into her chin. That was when she noticed the devastated expression on Naruto's face… and the pitying look Kakashi was giving him, the poor bloke whose girlfriend had memorised the taste of his rival's urine.
"Wait, it's not like that! I'm not a female pervert, I swear!" Sakura said hurriedly, waving her hands in front of her as their expressions grew increasingly wary, as though they were wondering how to deal with this maniac. "It's the Inuzuka clan's abilities I copied; I simply notice these odours passively, that's all! I've memorised yours too, you know! Oh, but it's not as though I go around men's urinals collecting samples directly from the source— stop looking at me like that, you've got to believe meeeee!"