"Haha…" said Sakura, looking at her reflection in the full-body length mirror in her changing room. "It couldn't be that, could it…?"
Sakura tentatively poked at her midriff, and much to her horror, she found that it went squish. She hadn't noticed the problem until now, since her bust blocked the rest of her body from view, but she should have known better!
'We may have gained a tiny little bit of weight over the winter,' admitted Inner Sakura. 'Not that much, really— no more than a kilo. Or two.'
"Maybe I'm just bloated," Sakura tried to persuade herself. "When's the last time I got my period? I keep losing track..."
To be perfectly honest, Sakura felt that the extra kilo was more flattering than not, as it helped to balance out her top-heavy figure. Even so, she knew this was a slippery slope—women, after all, tended to gain weight more easily than men, especially in the colder months. She didn't get much exercise working at the hospital, so if she kept lazing around the house and eating sweets… then one morning after waking up, she'd look in the mirror and find Future Mitarashi Anko staring back at her!
"It's all that stupid kotatsu's fault!" Sakura shouted. "First thing I'm doing when I get home is tossing it out, and then I'm going on a diet— for real, this time!"
"Is everything all right, dear customer?" came a woman's voice from the other side of the curtains. "Do you need any help?"
Sakura had completely forgotten that she was in a public space, rather than in her room. More accurately, she had stopped in the women's section of a department store for some last-minute shopping. She desperately needed new clothes for herself, and she also wanted to get a few presents for her friends, since today was the day of the Rinne festival.
"Sorry about that," said Sakura embarrassedly, passing the female clerk an article of clothing through the changing room's curtains. "I really like this top— would you happen to have this in a few sizes bigger?"
"I'll go check in the back," said the woman helplessly, as this wasn't the first trip Sakura had sent her on.
Sakura listened to the clicking of the clerk's high heels as they gradually faded, and once she was satisfied that the clerk had gone far enough, she took a step back to make some room in the small cubicle and crossed her fingers.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
A burst of displaced air caused the changing room's curtains to briefly flare outwards, as a pink-haired Shadow Clone manifested herself with a puff of white smoke in front of the original.
"Here, wear this," said Sakura, tossing her Shadow Clone one of the outfits she had assembled, before picking out a different outfit for herself.
In her past life, Sakura hadn't really cared about her choice of clothing, wearing mostly what her mum bought for her and school uniforms— but now that she was a hot girl, she found that dressing up was rather fun!
If it weren't for the fact that she needed to save up money for chakra metal, Sakura would now have a small mountain of sandals at home to keep her goldfish company…
"Hmm…" said Sakura as she inspected her Shadow Clone. "Give me a twirl."
"This is humiliating," the Shadow Clone sighed, nevertheless obliging the original and spinning on the spot.
"These spats do make my butt look big," said Sakura, chewing her lip in thought. "Maybe if they were in black… that'd be more flattering…"
The Shadow Clone rolled her eyes.
"By the way," the Shadow Clone said snidely, "that top makes you look super slutty— and not in a good way. Even the women Jiraiya-sama 'goes out' with wouldn't be caught dead wearing something like that in public…"
Sakura was currently trying out her summer uniform, but it was much too small for her. It was supposed to only show off her midriff, but it barely covered her nipples, displaying a great deal of underboob.
"You weren't going to buy these clothes right now, were you?" the Shadow Clone added. "You'll have outgrown them by spring."
The idea was for Sakura to buy an outfit in advance to motivate herself to maintain her waistline, so that by the time summer rolled around, her beach body would be able to fit in her shorts. However, the problem was that the outfit she was currently wearing came as a paired set of top and bottom— which meant that if Sakura's breasts continued ballooning in size, she'd have bought the clothes for nothing!
"I think you look great, no matter what you wear, onee-sama!" Karin chirped.
Sakura and her Shadow Clone simultaneously let out a strangled, "gwak!" of surprise. While they'd been busy being catty at each other, Karin had sneaked into their cubicle without making a sound…
"Ah, I definitely wasn't stalking you, onee-sama!" Karin stammered, shaking her hands in front of her frantically. "It's not as if I was feeling lonely without you!"
"She is such a tsundere," Shadow Clone Sakura chortled. "It's a shame, because she'd really be the perfect girlfriend if she wasn't a washboa—"
Without warning, Sakura punched her mid-sentence, the Shadow Clone leaving behind only a crumpled pile of clothes as she exploded in a puff of white smoke.
"What was she about to say?" said Karin, tilting her head quizzically at Sakura.
"Ahaha!" Sakura laughed ruefully. "My Shadow Clones, they… er… like to joke around."
The original Sakura definitely had a complex over her DFC (delicious flat chest), and as Karin was the only character flatter than her… well, Sakura didn't want to risk her tsundere stalker turning into a yandere by pushing her too far.
"Why don't you go wait for me outside, Karin?" suggested Sakura, spotting the female clerk returning with the winter clothes she'd asked her to find. "I won't be long."
"Oh…" said a chagrined Karin. "Okay then…"
Sakura, Tsunade, Shizune and the other girls of the Konoha 12, which now included Karin, had planned a girls' get-together away from the boys for the Rinne festival, as they were all single. Seeing as the promised hour for the party was approaching, Sakura hastily began gathering items for her shopping list, as she wasn't done preparing her gifts yet…
"I'll take that one," Sakura told a female clerk at the department store's jewellery stand, pointing at a crimson gemstone.
"Good choice!" said the middle-aged woman approvingly. "A beautiful ruby, the jewel of passion!"
Sakura mentally coughed out some blood when she saw the price tag. If only she had Crystal Style, she'd be able to make her homemade gifts less expensive!