Tomoka sat relaxed while enjoying the hot water and the soft bodies at her sides. She was glad for her foresight. She had made sure to ask the others to come here an hour later than her group. That and the fact she had reserved the whole place for the group allowed her to get handsy with her girls. Said girls were currently being hugged by her as they rested their heads on her shoulders. 

 

Both girls were having troubles with their legs after their, ahem, “exercise session”. Though by now they should be fine thanks to their strong bodies. Not like they wouldn’t act tired to get pampered more. Tomoka wouldn’t complain either as she likes to pamper them. 

 

A while later the rest of the group finally appeared with Naruko and Satsuki blushing up a storm after seeing the trio’s naked bodies. Unlike the trio they decided to go in with their towels still on. Temari who came moments after did the same. Meanwhile on the other side of a thick log wall the guys were enjoying the hot water with towels on their lower bodies. 

 

None of the guys wanted to peep for simple reasons. Gaara and Kankuro didn’t want to see their sister’s naked body nor deal with her wrath. Orochimaru for his part didn’t care for such things as he is into little bo- Ahem, I mean kekkei genkais and such. 

 

“So, have the two of you kissed already?” Tomoka asked nonchalantly despite the teasing grin that settled on her face betraying her true intentions. The already tomato red Naruko and Satsuki blushed even harder hearing the question. 

 

“Of course they have, remember their first kiss at the academy?” Hinata who caught on almost instantly answered with a similar teasing grin. In her group she is the one always getting teased so she wouldn’t let the opportunity to tease others go. 

 

“I remember that, these two were still guys back then. I knew they had something for each other even then.” Nozomi went for the killing blow. The duo of Uchiha and Uzumaki became so flustered they hid under the water up to their nose while blowing bubbles out of the water. However, someone else reacted as well with far much more vigor. 

 

“Wait! What do you mean they were guys back then? What’s going on?” Temari, who had suddenly heard something outrageous, asked while pointing her fingers between the duo and the trio.    

 

“Right, you wouldn’t know. So it goes something like this…” Before Satsuki could stop Tomoka she began telling the story of their accident. To her dismay she did in using the exact same words Naruko had used to tell her the story. Which included the use of a certain jutsu and a kiss. 

 

By the end of the story Temari was looking at the duo with dubious eyes. Wondering if they indeed had a thing for each other even before turning into girls. Though after staring for a while she decided to not care as it wasn’t her problem anyway. 

 

“Oh! By the way, I found the origin of that water. Unfortunately the change can’t be safely undone.” Tomoka’s comment made everyone present stare at her. Their gazes made it rather obvious that they wanted her to explain further so she did. 

 

“It was a red rock. There is an underground river that flows near that cave. Some of its water would sip through the stone reaching the red rock I just mentioned. Through time some form of weird chakra I have been studying would sip into the water. Said chakra has the effect of reversing the gender of any biological matter that comes into contact with it. Which is something oddly specific for some random rock to do.”  

 

What Tomoka wasn’t telling them was that she recognized the damned rock as soon as she found out about its properties. SCP-113 or as she likes to call it the gender bending rock. From the tests she has managed to conduct so far the thing is anything but natural as it is made from a lattice of chakra in such a mind bending way she doubts it could be formed naturally. 

 

Though more important than that was the fact the thing was in this world. Was it somehow created here or had it somehow found itself into this world? The fact it used chakra meant that it either adapted to this world or was created here. If it somehow came from outside the world then it would mean that the possibility of other things like it entering this one wasn’t null. After all, once was happenstance, twice is coincidence but thrice would be a pattern. Right now it has happened twice that she knows of. Herself and the rock. If she were to find a third thing coming from the outside then… things would get a lot more interesting. 

 

“One thing of note is that merely touching the rock is hazardous. Touch it and your body will absorb it while its chakra starts changing your body into the opposite gender. After the process, which is extremely painful by the way, is over the chakra will leave the body and form back into a red rock. It is worth noting that touching it again will restart the process, however, with each subsequent change the chances for mutation and death increases exponentially.

 

This is due to genetic degradation with each use. The water you two were exposed to had the same effect except for a simple exception that its chakra content wasn’t as volatile so the process wasn’t as dangerous or painful. I am trying to figure out the process through which the water was created with no success yet.”

 

After explaining the whole thing everyone went silent. This was especially the case for Naruko and Satsuki who were the ones affected by this. Should they risk it and go back to being male? That question swirled on their minds for a good minute or two before their eyes met. As if having a whole conversation with just that look they nodded before Satsuki spoke first. 

 

“I see. Well, for my part I don’t mind being a girl, I already got used to it and good things have come thanks to the incident.” Naruko at her side nodded as well, agreeing with the statement. To her, being male or female didn’t feel all that different from each other. She was herself and that was it. 

 

“Well, good to know. I will still work on it since it will be great for different uses in the future… Like having kids.” The last part was said so fast everyone needed a second or two to comprehend the words. Ever since Lust had made the comment the subject of kids had been bouncing around Tomoka’s head like an over energetic kid. 

 

Once everyone else managed to comprehend what was said everyone blushed. Temari did so as well but for a different reason as she felt awkward being part of this conversation seeing as she is the only single one in the group.  

 

“Tomoka!” 

 

“I blame Lust!” Before her girls could start scolding her she shouted her piece while trying to escape. Unfortunately for her, Hinata and Nozomi weren’t going to let her go this time. A moment later Tomoka found herself restrained by the girls' use of their respective dojutsu.   

 

 

While this was happening black lines appeared on Temari’s face seeing the pink atmosphere that had formed around the trio and duo. Seeing them play and flirt like this made her feel her singleness far more. That however was stopped when a new person entered the bath. 

 

As everyone turned to look who was the one to enter they were met with red, wild hair and black rimmed glasses with red eyes behind them. The new arrival looked around until her eyes landed on Tomoka at which point a small scowl appeared on her face. 

 

“Tomoka! Why didn’t you invite me as well!” Karin shouted while pointing towards Tomoka with a prominent pout. Ever since she was rescued she had come to learn a lot about Tomoka as she began to learn different things living in Yggdrasil. She had been dying to meet the real one and so once she managed to hunt down her location she invaded the place. After all, Karin came to see Tomoka as her older, wiser sister. It helped a lot that both had the typical Uzumaki red hair. 

 

Tomoka for her part had started sweating as she felt two extremely powerful killing intents from her sides. She had been captured by the girls moments before Karin came in and now she wasn’t sure she would be leaving the hotsprings alive. 

 

“Tomoka~ Would you mind introducing us~?” Hinata’s words were smooth and calm as her lips turned into a friendly kind smile while her presence radiated murderous intent. Nozomi was no better as her eyes focused on her girlfriend. 

 

“Ahem, this is Karin Uzumaki. The girl I told you I saved a while back. She is like a little sister to me so no need to worry you two. Karin, these are my girlfriends I talked about.” Tomoka spoke with a calm tone despite how terrified she was. Currently she felt like she had landed in the middle of a pack of hungry wolves. Showing any sign of weakness would result in her untimely death.  

 

Despite Tomoka’s words Karin began glaring at Hinata and Nozomi while the duo did the same. They were staring so hard Tomoka could swear she was seeing sparks flying everywhere. 

 

Hinata and Nozomi after hearing the little sister part couldn’t help but think of the many harem anime they had seen in Tomoka’s mindscape where the non blood related little sister had the hots for the protagonist. Karin for her part was staring at them to see if they would be good to her big sister. They continued to stare at each other for a while long before suddenly all three of them smile reaching a silent consensus. 

 

““Nice to meet you Karin.”” Both girls said in sync with relaxed smiles on their faces.

 

“Likewise, sisters-in-law.” Now that the tension had fled Karin went ahead and joined the group as she began chatting amicably with Hinata and Nozomi about Tomoka and what each of them had seen her do.

 

“What was that?” Naruko who had witnessed the whole thing hadn’t understood a thing. Temari and Satsuki were no better. 

 

“No idea.” Even Tomoka was at a loss of words. She had expected a fight and she was ready to intervene. Yet the fight died before it could start and now the participants were talking like nothing was wrong in the world. 

 

On the other side of the wall Things were a lot more awkward for a simple reason. None of the three present were conversationalists. Not to mention Orochi was looking at Gaara with interest causing both the guy and the bijuu to clench their butts out of instinct. Gaara’s control over sand became of interest to Orochimaru. Was it a jutsu or a kekkei genkai, had it any relation to magnet style? He wanted to find out as always but he restrained himself to observation only for the time being. After all, it would require a single hit to turn him into smoke. 

 

Kankuro had tried to start a conversation with his brother once. It resulted in utter failure as Gaara only answered with either a single word or a short sentence. So yeah, the atmosphere was as awkward as it could get. That is until a featureless wooden puppet came in with a tray full of alcohol and a note. 

 

“Bet you all are awkwardly sitting around. Drink some and relax a little -Tomoka”  After reading the note Kankuro thought about it for a second or two. In the end he shrugged before taking a beer alongside a large gulp. Normally, as a minor he wouldn’t be allowed to drink alcohol which he found stupid. He is old enough to kill legally but not to drink.   

 

Anyway once Kankuro drank around half of his first beer Gaara decided to drink as well. Finally Orochimaru decided to drink as well. Normally he didn’t like alcohol since it would dull his mind. Now however he was confident that his state as a clone would prevent that. He was wrong. He didn’t realize that this beer was specifically made to get beings with chakra and or made of it drunk. After all, most of those that drank the thing were Tomoka’s phantoms. 

 

The girls had also started drinking as well and to no one’s surprise the duo and trio began flirting leaving Kari and Temari as third wheels. Drunk and feeling frustrated over being the only ones without  a girlfriend or boyfriend the two decided to fool around a little. It didn’t take all that long for them to end up with each other’s tongue down their throats. 

 

Before things could get too steamy Tomoka decided to send everyone to their respective rooms so they wouldn’t do something they could come to regret once they became sober. This resulted with a heavily pouting Karin and Temari as they settled down in two separate rooms. Naruko and Satsuki despite their drunkenness weren’t as wild so they got a room for themselves. Finally Tomoka and co got a room for themselves as well though Tomoka couldn’t help but feel like she was forgetting something. 

 

“Hinata, Nozomi, am I missing something?” 

 

“No?” “Don’t think so” 

 

“Meh whatever, if I forgot it shouldn’t be all that important.” With a shrug Tomoka snuggled next to her girls as sleep slowly started taking her to the land of dreams. 

 

[Why didn’t you ask me as well?]

 

‘Right! You are here as well.’

 

[Wow, I got forgotten, how cruel.]

 

‘Bah don’t be a cry baby. Do you know what I forgot?’ 

 

[Being forgotten was too much, my memory is failing me.]

 

‘Come on you drama queen do you know or not’

 

[Not telling.]

 

‘Whatever’

 

What Tomoka had forgotten were the now drunk puppeteer, sand tanuki and snake. Those three were currently still in the hotsprings drunk, laughing and singing. Their towels had fallen off long ago but none of them cared at that point as they danced while drinking and hugging each other. Truly, a demonstration of manly bonding, and swaying hoses.