Hot tears graced her pale cheeks. Sakura had her head bent down a little, causing those nuisances to drop on her hands. She ignored it, focusing on the task at hand. As the Hokage's esteemed apprentice, she knows that failure was not an option.
She would not give up, even as Naruto watched her with grim acceptance that was visible in his clear blue eyes.
Not even when Sasuke was trying his best to ignore her again, pretending he didn't care.
Kakashi, who had unwittingly neglected her training all those years ago, was the one watching her back. Guiding her, teaching her how to do this right, and in her way of the ninja—she will do it right!
They were all silent, watching Sakura as she did her thing. The three men quietly anticipated the result of her hard work, her training, and her promise to them. Even if their insides were screaming for her not to do this—it wasn't necessary. But for her, they would keep quiet and support her as she had supported them throughout the years.
Another pair of tears dripped down from her beautiful eyes. Naruto looked like he was about to say something. Surprisingly, it was Sasuke who glared at him, silently telling the blond to shut up and bear with it.
Kakashi placed his gloved hand on her shoulder, urging her to go on.
She looked back at his visible eye. "Am I doing it right, sensei?" her voice was laced with worry.
He nodded. Kakashi's smile was visible through the dark mask that he still stubbornly wore, even though the three of them had already seen his face. With that, the kunoichi returned to her work with renewed determination.
It was a moment later when a puff of smoke exploded from her left, indicating that something had gone wrong.
"Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu!"
Shocked, Sakura's reflexes didn't make it in time to protect her project. Before she realized it, she was dripping wet. Her carefully chopped onions were all over the floor with the other vegetables that she had so meticulously minced.
Kakashi who had escaped at the last nanosecond was now nonchalantly sitting on her couch reading his beloved book, probably sensing the inevitable burst of her temper.
She glared at her three teammates. The three grown men didn't even have the guts to meet her stare. She gripped her kitchen knife tightly, "SHANAROOO, NARUTOOO!"
Said jounin gulped.
"Dobe, you over did it", muttered the Uchiha. He walked towards the closet and got two mops, handing the other one to Naruto.
"I'm sorry Sakura-chan. Um, reflexes?"
She rolled her eyes, "That doesn't mean you should use a high level water jutsu! Damn it Naruto, good thing I put modified chakra seals on my walls or else I wouldn't have a place to live!"
Sakura would have beaten the hell out of him if it wasn't partly her fault that something in her vegetable stock had exploded—she had accidentally added a rare herb with unknown properties that she was still researching. She did keep most of her medicinal herbs in her refrigerator, so she must have accidentally picked it up while gathering the ingredients.
"And you—Kakashi-sensei! Why hadn't you noticed it? I thought you were checking if I were doing things right?"
Sasuke smirked, knowing that he was the only one who hadn't acquired the wrath of the teammate-turned-she-devil. Sakura saw it, "Sasuke-kun! You were closest one to him, why didn't you smack him before he did anything stupid!?"
Naruto triumphantly stuck out his tongue at his best friend. The kitchen knife flew mere millimeters from cutting said tongue and was now embedded five inches through the concrete wall.
"Now, I'm going to my room to change and when I get back I want the vegetables out of the floor—properly rinsed, and my apartment dry. Got it?"
The three men quickly nodded. She smiled a little too sweetly, considering her current temper, and walked to her room.
Forty minutes later, the four members of Team Seven was properly seated in Sakura's dining table.
Naruto sniffed his vegetable soup, apprehension written in his face. "Did you forget the noodles Sakura-chan?"
She sighed. "We talked about this before, Naruto. You don't get enough nutrients in your diet, you need more produce. I thought you would like vegetable soup better than fresh salad, since it's kind of similar to ramen. Sasuke-kun likes tomatoes, so there are some there too, and Kakashi-sensei promised that he'll eat anything that I cook. It's compromise!"
The doubt was still on his face, so she turned her expectant gaze at Sasuke. The ex-avenger glared at the soup, right hand holding the silver spoon tightly. "See, Sasuke-kun can handle it. Wouldn't want to be beaten, would you Naruto?"
"Aaah! Of course not, as the future Hokage I'll eat Sakura-chan's weed soup!" declared the blond. Sakura didn't even bother to correct him; anything that grows in soil that wasn't in ramen was "weed" in his book.
"Now shall we?" asked the now mask-less Kakashi. Being Sakura's cook teacher, he had a lot of experience with his student's culinary failures so it was nothing new to him.
The four simultaneously sipped the watered down, slightly burnt, vegetable soup. Four pairs of eyes bugged out. Naruto took another spoonful.
"Wow Sakura-chan, this is actually good!"
"Aa"
"Well, well, Sakura. I guess the little mystery ingredient helped bring out the flavor and with the additional water, it didn't overpower the other ingredients."
With that, Team Seven continued their weekly lunch in peace—until next week's new dish.
End.
A/N: Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu – the dragon water thing jutsu that Kakashi and Zabuza used. I know that they use the river water for that jutsu, but let's pretend that Naruto can use it by producing his own water from his mouth or using water from the sink—you decide. I just thought it would look funny how a Naruto would use a water dragon thingy as a fire extinguisher in Sakura's cooking mishap. Sorry for any typos and grammar mistakes—prolly with the tenses. I'm not really good at proof reading.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.