Summary: How dare he insult my cooking! I mean, what was not appetizing about tomato cheesecake?

Cherry Tomatoes

Sakura Haruno, with a skilled flick of the wrist, flipped the two strips of bacon over. The two pieces of meat sizzled on the oiled surface of the pan. The smells of an early-morning breakfast drifted throughout the house. With a practised hand, she cracked an egg on the edge of a shiny metal bowl on the counter, and held it over the pan which still contained the breakfast meat. The contents of the white shell oozed out and landed on the hot pan. Sakura hummed quietly as the thick liquid quickly became a solid.

Sakura was excited. It was her and Sasuke's first day waking up under the same roof as an official couple. Namely, Sasuke's roof. To mark this memorable occasion, she had woken up early to prepare breakfast for them. He often remarked that her cooking was... less than satisfactory.

This was Sakura's chance to prove her sweetheart wrong!

Ow.

She flinched. A drop of oil had landed on her unprotected arms. She released the handle of the pan and backed away from the stove. She carefully examined where the oil had landed. A small angry, red mark near the wrist of her pale arm was becoming more prominent by the second. She sighed. There wouldn't be really any point in healing it. It'd be a waste of precious chakra. She'd been taught that some things were meant to heal naturally.

Much of her enthusiasm lost now, Sakura took off the apron, setting it down on a chair, and prepped her and her boyfriend's meal. She could feel a light giddiness in her chest come once again as she rearranged the food on his plate into a sunny-side smiling face. Sakura balanced the two plates on her good arm, and reached for the two glasses of orange juice she had poured earlier that were on the counter. Her small, callused hands were stiff and claw-like as she uncomfortably wrapped them around the two large glasses. The pink-haired woman began her journey to her dark-haired lover's room.

After the rather difficult ascent up the staircase, Sakura had finally made it.

'There.'

She rested the two plates of now warm food on the small table beside the door and knocked.

"Sasuke?" Sakura whispered. No response. She opened the door. She blinked. The room was completely dark; dark blue curtains at the window shrouding the rather large space in black. The pink-haired woman shut the door behind her, but not before grabbing the two plates on the stand outside. She could feel her eyes dilating as they adjusted. She walked loud purposely, her intent on warning Sasuke of her presence.

It worked. She could hear the rustling of blankets. Her hearing, enhanced by years of training as a ninja, could hear the shallow, uneven breathing of her boyfriend. A frown marred her delicate features.

Padding to where her mind had memorized the bed to be, Sakura set the plates and glasses down on the nightstand beside the bed. The bed was underneath the windows, so she had a difficult time opening it while trying not to land on the eerily still body on the mattress.

Flashes of light dashed across her vision before fleeting. It was sunny outside. The bright rays intruded the room. After a few moments of being dazed, she finally glanced down.

"Sasuke!" her voice whispered harshly.

Her Sasuke. Was sick.

He gazed at her with those same smouldering eyes that always made her legs feel like jelly, albeit glazed. She noticed his skin was paler than usual and bit her lip. Without a second thought, she took his hand into hers, noting it was clammy and cold, and brought her face up to his own until their foreheads were touching. Sakura was alarmed to find his own hotter than hers.

"Are you okay?" her voice asked, laced with concern. He stiffened at their close proximity.

"I'm fine." He pushed her off firmly, but gently. Sasuke sat up slowly, while Sakura watched; ready to be of service if needed. He looked at her with his normal stoic stare. She idly wondered why his cheeks were so red before dismissing it as a symptom. She sighed, bringing a hand up to her own forehead wearily. Sasuke raised an elegant eyebrow towards her.

"I knew I shouldn't have let you stay out so long last night with Naruto". The green-eyed girl glared at Sasuke, who was still staring at her wordlessly. Most people would await a response, but she knew he wouldn't respond, so she continued. "I blame this all on you." Sakura spat out childishly, refusing to be blamed.

Dark onyx eyes narrowed, clashing with fierce jade eyes. They glared in a heated match. Sakura gave up first.

Sasuke smirked.

Sakura pouted.

Sasuke finally spoke. "Aren't you the one who insisted I spar with Naruto last night?" She stared, wide-mouthed at this completely false accusation. "If I recall, you had 'wanted me to have a fun night out'". Sasuke quoted.

Her mouth had finally clamped shut. Green eyes were staring at him, but not at the same time. He could only imagine the witty response his girlfriend was trying to come up with.

"I...", Sakura started. He raised an eyebrow at her expectantly, trying his hardest to suppress the fit of coughs tickling in his throat. She cleared her throat and glared at him.

"If you really were a prodigy as everyone says, then you should've known that wasn't what I meant when I said 'fun night out'! I meant Ichikaru's or something!" She blurted out.

Sakura crossed her arms over her chest and looked down at him with a higher-than-thou attitude.

Sasuke didn't like how she stood over him, and she knew it.

So... he tried to stand up. Keyword: tried. He was weak and had a headache. Sakura lips were pursed. She decided to intervene when beads of sweat started forming on his forehead. She pushed him lightly down back onto the mattress. He lay back down immediately.

He glared at her. She grinned.

Sakura placed the back of her hand to Sasuke's forehead. She pumped healing chakra through her fingertips. He put up no fight this time; merely staring at her face which was firm with concentration. They stayed in their respective positions for a few moments; then Sakura withdrew her hand. The headache was gone. Not his sinus problems or coughs, unfortunately.

"You have a cold." Sakura informed Sasuke in a cool, professional tone.

"No kidding."

Sakura could feel her eye twitching. She huffed.

"Well, I'll go and tell Tsunade-sensei that you won't be in today." The pink-haired woman stated as she pulled together the curtains. She threw the blanket bunched at the bottom of the bed at his head. In turn, he caught it right before it was on his face.

"Hn." Sasuke responded. Sasuke watched her glide to the door, and his face softened slightly. Despite his unmarred, stoic face, Sasuke was tired. He watched Sakura go to, most likely, the Hokage Tower.

She was almost out the door when she turned around again. Her hands were behind her back in an innocent manner and she looked at him earnestly, head tilted.

"Sasuke-kun, do you want me to buy anything for you to eat today?" The pink-haired woman asked. As a response, Sasuke snorted and turned his gaze to the wall. Disappointed at his lack of an answer, she shuffled to the door. She was halfway out when the dark-haired man spoke.

"Tomatoes", a voice muttered out. She could feel the beginnings of a smile on her face. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her, suspicious about the sudden straightening of her back.

"Hai", was all Sakura said before floating out of the room.

Sasuke's eyes slowly closed as he succumbed to sleep.

Tsunade was not one to mince words. In fact, it had been one of the first attributes that had drawn her to her teacher when she was young. The Hokage was blunt and serious and Sakura could truthfully say that she loved her teacher for that. But, with every good trait of a person was an equally bad one. The one major downside of the woman was her gambling addiction and her love of alcohol; the latter being done before Sakura's eyes at the moment.

Sakura grimaced as her teacher slammed her fifth cup of sake down on the desk. There were vivid indents of where the Hokage had gracefully put it down. It was something Sakura had gotten used to; watching her teacher unwittingly use her monstrous strength to destroy office furniture.

The pink-haired woman was much too impatient today to scold the Saanin on her conduct that day and instead opted to waiting as the older woman composed herself to the best of her drunk-hazed abilities.

"Sooo Sakura? Why are you here?" There was a slight lilt to her shishou's words, to which Sakura could imagine was from the intoxicated condition of her teacher.

Sakura fidgeted nervously. The older woman cocked an eyebrow with half-lidded eyes.

"Umm... well Tsunade-shishou, I just wanted to tell you that Sasuke is kind of... sick." Sakura ignored the surprise in Tsunade's eyes. "So I'm afraid he won't be able to anything too strenuous for a few days." Sakura finished off rather lamely, and was honestly hoping the Hokage would give the Uchiha a little vacation. Now, it wasn't because he was that sick. Sakura was positive he'd be up and about by the next day at the latest, she just... wanted to spend more time with him.

She was hoping honest to god Tsuande would be drunk enough to say yes.

The Saanin stared past Sakura in a contemplative manner. Sakura bit her lip in nervous anticipation.

"No", she said and downed another cup of alcohol.

Did the Hokage just pout? Sakura meekly tried again.

"But..." The pink-haired chuunin hesitated. The blonde-haired woman had slammed the cup down on the table once again. The only difference this time was there was a crack. Sakura's shoulders deflated. Even with the woman inebriated state, Sakura was still at a disadvantage.

Unless...

"Tsunade-shishou. I'll buy you a bottle of that sake Wataribune if you give Sasuke a little vacation." Sakura said, sing-songy. The older woman stiffened and Sakura could see the glint in amber eyes.

The pink-haired woman's fidgeted as the awkward silence stretched out. Her eyes brightened as she watched her teacher move.

Stoically, Tsunade pulled out a file from her messy table and signed it. She handed the folder to her bewildered student. Tsunade blankly stared.

"Go."

It was after that Sakura then proceeded to leave the room, wondering how someone so intoxicated could become so sober so quick.

Sakura was almost skipping as she entered the street with stalls lining the edge. The street market was alive with hustle and bustle. The cheery atmosphere was infectious and Sakura couldn't help but be charmed by it. She glanced at each stall before moving on. It was when she was almost done her normal grocery shopping that she started looking around for what Sasuke had wanted: tomatoes.

...

Sakura glanced distastefully at the piece of produce in her hand. She had never understood why he had liked the round piece of fruit (Sasuke insisted it was a vegetable, but who was the doctor here?). It was so... simple.

'Everything he was not.' Sakura thought dreamily.

She supposed it was fine during their genin days to eat it so much. She recalled that he once told her that the only thing he had eaten when they were 12 was either tomatoes or onigiri. She also recalled when he jumped out of the window (ninja-like of course) in a broody temper tantrum when she started rolling on the floor laughing at his statement, believing it not to be true. It was during the early stages of their relationship, so it was a fond memory of hers.

Sakura stared at the produce in her hand.

An idea danced it way into her brain.

It was then she decided that she, Sakura Haruno, would make something out of this world...

'Finally', the pinkette thought as she left the hospital. But, she could feel her inner-self cackle insanely, at least it was still day; 5 to be exact. She had planned to work until 3, but those plans fell through.

She had had to stay for two hours longer because the hospital had been understaffed. On top of that, a chuunin team had been ambushed by a group of rogue ninja when they had been coming back to the village. Sakura was sincerely thankful that only one of them had been grievously injured. The others had suffered minor wounds, but nothing as life-threatening as their teammate had suffered. It wouldn't have been as difficult if she hadn't been the only advanced medic-nin on call in the emergency room.

In other words, Sakura was pooped.

Still, she pushed through and used chakra to help her run the rest of the way to Sasuke's house. She could feel the cool autumn air hit her cheeks as she jumped from roof to roof. It was only when Sakura was near her destination that she slowed down. Her sore legs sluggishly brought her to the front door. The pink-haired woman opened the door with her left hand, meanwhile using her right arm to hold the groceries.

She collapsed onto the couch near the door and sighed into the fluffy pink cushions she had given to Sasuke as a gag gift. The medic-nin rested there for a few moments before hoisting herself up from her comfortable position. Almost regretful of how she relinquished her spot on the couch, she moved to the small kitchen and set to work.

The noises outside signalling Sakura's arrivals relaxed the agitation Sasuke had been feeling. Ever since she had left a few hours ago, he had been waking up frequently; the fear of something happening to her had been constantly on his mind.

He lay in bed, his eyes listlessly looking up at the white ceiling.

Although Sasuke surmised Konoha was a fairly safe place for her to wander around, he still couldn't relax himself into a sleep after she left.

For his lover's sake, he had pretended. And she had not noticed.

During his "sleep", he briefly wondered whether her skills as a ninja were not as up to par as he had thought, or if she had been so bothered by his condition that she had not noted the hitched sounds of breathing (his throat wanting to cough) that were fairly apparent just as she was closing the door.

He knew she was strong—it had been one of the traits that had attracted him to her—but why did he still worry for her safety? For as long as he could remember, she'd always been fragile. When they were first put into the same squad, he hadn't taken a liking to her; thought her as weak, but that had been normal for him. Back then, the only thing on his mind had been killing his brother.

Normally after Sakura left each morning, Sasuke would tail her to the hospital. Once he knew she was safe, the ANBU would make his way to the Hokage's tower.

This had been going on for a while now, ever since they had been made into chuunin. The ramifications of his actions were not hidden. In fact, a year after Sasuke had begun following Sakura, Naruto had found him staring at the petite cherry blossom from a tree.

Back then, Sasuke had only a feeling of camaraderie and possessiveness towards the only female member of their squad, so he was bemused when Naruto had been grinning like the idiot he was when the annoyed 15 year old Uchiha had informed his best friend of why he was tailing (not stalking) the cherry blossom.

It wasn't until they were 16 that he had begun to take heed of Sakura; not as a teammate, but as a woman. He knew of the pink-haired girl's amorous feelings towards him, but still, he ignored the feelings blossoming within him.

And...

It wasn't until he had become and= ANBU and her still a chuunin (to which her excuse was she never has enough time) that their relationship began to progress.

Surprisingly, Sasuke made the first move at the age of 17:

"Do you want to come live with me?" Sasuke said offhandedly to the small female beside him. Jade-coloured eyes stared up at him in shock. The two were standing in front of the ruins of Sakura's apartment complex. There was not even the skeleton of a structure. The only things where the building had been was rubble and a random possession of a tenant in the complex scattered on the piece of land.

She gave him one of her Smiles.

"Sure."

To this day, Sasuke knew whether or not to thank Orochimaru's attack on the village, or begrudge him.

Sasuke slowly moved his arm to his eyes. He was tired. It was pure willpower that had allowed him to stay awake until Sakura came back. Now, that willpower was gone.

The clatter outside and a female yelp sent him flying. His last thought before he was flying off his bed and out into the hallway was maybe it was a habit.

To protect her.

Oh god.

She was exhausted. Once she had arrived to the kitchen, she had worked slowly: cutting up the ingredients, measuring other ingredients in the cups. She had been in the action of cutting up a tomato when her exhaustion had finally gotten the better of her.

She had accidentally cut her finger.

Sakura was not unused to pain. It was a normal occurrence in life as a ninja, albeit a healer, but it was surprising. She'd squeaked at the stinging pain when the knife cut her.

A small burst of chakra had been her only warning as a hand grabbed her own wounded appendage.

"Ahh—!" A hand covered her mouth before she could finish screaming. The two figures stayed still for some moments, one breathing heavily because of surprise and the other because he had overexerted himself.

She wanted to shout at him. She really did. If she hadn't had a hand over her houth, she would've definitely have shouted at him. So she looked at the wall before her, stupefied.

"Sakura, stop being annoying." Sasuke whispered into her ear and put his large hand down. She tilted her head upwards and could see Sasuke hovering above her. He was behind her, so close that she could feel the warmth from his chest. Their close proximity made her nervous, and rid any irate thoughts towards the younger Uchiha. She was snapped out of her thoughtless reverie when the dark-haired man began to guide her hand to the sink in front of her. She scowled, her face flushed with a mix of embarrassment and anger.

"What do you think you're—" She began, her tone livid. Her voice stopped short when cold water began flowing through the faucet and onto the cut. With his paler callused hand on her own, he used his thumb to rub gently over the wound. She twitched from the ache, but was compliant with his actions, watching in awed fascination as the crimson liquid flowed downwards with the water.

When he deemed his work satisfactory, he turned her around slowly and –to Sakura's surprise—kissed her finger. She could feel her face hot, and she briefly pondered if she had gotten sick as well. Before she could think of something coherent, his head was resting on her shoulder blade.

"Sakura?"

She flinched, and was indignant when she felt him smirking against her shoulder.

"Yes...?" She answered cautiously?

"What are you doing?" Her heart fluttering, she sidestepped away and backed away from the counter. Sakura Haruno did not want to be trapped between a rock and a hard place.

'But which one was which?' she thought as she stared at his well-muscled shirtless self.

"Sakura-chan." His voice called out rather seductively. Was this her Sasuke anymore?! He was aloof about everything and this version of Sasuke was... certainly not aloof and emotionless.

Goddamn him being sick.

She blamed this completely on Naruto. Yes. Naruto was at fault here! She was totally not healing him tomorrow.

She squeaked in the back of her throat as Sasuke advanced.

'Oh god, oh god, oh go...'

Sakura did the only thing that any sane person would do.

She grabbed a pan from behind her and held it in front of her in a very threatening manner.

"Stay back! I know how to use this!" The cherry blossom snarled out. His response? A quirk of the eyebrow.

He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose (Why did he always do that when she seemed to be around?) and then proceeded to cross his arms over his chest coolly. She could feel the adrenaline disappearing and she lowered the pan. Looking down with pan and hands behind her back, she was fully conscious of her behaviour just then and mumbled her response, embarrassed.

"Making a tomato cheesecake..."

Automatic response: "You didn't have to do that."

Sakura was cheered by his reply and grinned at his oddly stoic face and stiff posture.

"I wanted to! You've always said my cooking wasn't that great..." She saw his eye twitch. He sure was excited! "... so I decided it'd be nice to combine something I loved and something you loved into a wonderful new creation!" When she was finished all her dramatic hand gestures, Sakura could honestly say she was quite happy with herself and proceeded to go to the sink to wash the pan.

Meanwhile, Sasuke was trying to put his reply into... not so blunt words. It was two minutes of silence, save for the sound of rushing water, until he could think of a reply.

"Sakura, your cooking is terrible no matter what you do."

Sasuke felt the room go cold.

Oops.

Sakura's movements changed from happy-go-lucky to menacing in 5 seconds flat. She threw the pan in the sink while grumbling explicit words. Sasuke cringed. Once she turned around... it was all over. He did the only thing he could do.

He made his way back to his room.

"Oh Sasuke-kun..." Her voice called. It didn't seem angry, but on the other hand... Sakura had always hid her ire with happy tones. He was halfway up the stairs and grunted to tell her he was paying attention.

"You're tasting the damn cheesecake when I'm done making it."

Dammit.

"So how is it?" She asked happily. He chewed the soft piece of dessert(?) in his mouth thoughtfully and swallowed. She glanced at him hopefully from the corner of her eye while arranging a pile of magazines on the coffee table in front of them. The couple was sitting on their couch in the living room. Sakura's temper had cooled down and the pink-haired woman seemed eager to find out what he thought about her new dish.

He put down the plate gently and looked at her with steady eyes. She blushed. No matter how much they'd been spending time together, she still felt like a puddle of wet goo whenever he look at her with such... smouldering eyes.

"It was not... terrible", Sasuke remarked.

On the inside, her alter ego was running victory laps around an imaginary course screeching 'Hell yeah!' On the outside, Sakura was just tickled pink.

Contemplative of her newfound cooking skill, she picked up the plate of eaten cake and stared at it. It was a small sliver of cake; yellow fluffy-looking cake parts, with chunks of tomato stuck in it. She guessed it looked appealing. Appearance hadn't been her number one priority when she was furiously scrapping the dough into the metal pan to bake the cake thinking of ways to murder her jerk of a boyfriend, and her idiot of a best friend.

With studied grace, she took the fork sticking out of the cake, scooped a piece, and plopped it into her mouth while Sasuke could only stare, inwardly thinking he was... well, doomed.

She spat it out once the taste touched her taste buds, and was wishing for mouthwash as she tried to get the taste out of her mouth. She glared at the plate in her hand and with a forced calm sat in back on the table.

From what Sasuke observed from her expressive face, Sakura Haruno was pissed.

"You liar!" The now infuriated pinkette screeched out.

"I did not lie." Sasuke answered tersely. Sakura snorted an unladylike snort. Sasuke's eye twitched.

"Suuuree. And pigs can fly." Sakura said. Sasuke's onyx eyes were piercing as he glared into her fired up jade ones. Sakura watched him with a critical eye as she held herself akimbo.

"Sakura, I wasn't lying. It wasn't terrible."

Sakura pursed her lips. Sakura sat back down beside him and look ahead unseeingly. "It is." She muttered, more to herself than him. "How am I going to be a good girlfriend if I can't even take care of you. " Sasuke observed her, quietly watching herself overexert and worry herself again.

An uncharacteristic action of the young Uchiha: he held her hand. Sakura jumped at the intrusion of space. She blushed. He had gotten closer to her; their legs were almost touching. Shyly, she looked at his face, all thoughts of worthlessness flew out of the window as she stared at his eyes. She could hear herself gasp quietly.

His normally passive eyes were now hardened and contained an emotion that she couldn't identify.

And then, he kissed her.

Sakura realized it wasn't one of those chaste, sweet kisses that they normally, but very rarely shared. This one was special. Don't get her wrong. It wasn't one of those tongue-fighting matches she had heard of from Ino, but it still had a strong impression of something. It had some kind of feeling which Sakura couldn't make out. It was as if he was trying to tell her something all in that one kiss. Her shock was evident in the way she didn't respond to his actions.

It was only when he backed away that Sakura remembered to breathe. Of course, Sasuke wouldn't let her off the hook that easily.

Their foreheads were now touching and Sakura's face was as red as a cherry tomato. She noted that Sasuke's face was slightly less pallor, but dismissed it as him being ill. The two were breathing loudly from their 30 seconds without air.

Sakura, who had before been looking downward, unconsciously looked to his face and was surprised to notice see he was looking at her.

"The reason I thought it wasn't terrible..." She felt the hairs on the back of her neck as he spoke, his lips were centimetres from her own. "... was because it was made by you."

Her last conscious thought before fainting was thinking inner Sakura's fangirl screams were way too loud.

"Stupid Sasuke!"

Sasuke looked behind at her warily as he put on his ANBU uniform. He could feel the waves of anger emanating from her PJ-clad form. He stood up, his own body towering over hers.

"Why'd you have to kiss—?" She sneezed loudly. Sasuke crossed his arms as she wiped her nose with the back of her sleeve.

"Bless you."

"Thank yo—" She began before stopping herself. Instead, she gave him an aggravated stare as her response. "You aren't off the hook like that mister! Now I'm sick and that means I can't help at the hospital, which means the other nurses are going to have to work harder and—."

"You're always doing everything." He interrupted quietly. "It's about time they started doing their share." Sakura opened her mouth, but found she couldn't think of a retort to his blunt remark and clamped it shut. Sasuke noticed the action, and looked amused.

"Well, I've already told Tsunade-shishou that you won't be coming in for a few days so—" Sakura began again.

Sasuke gave her an almost exasperated stare. She could feel her cheeks turning red as he brushed a stray strand of pink hair off her pallid face.

"There's too many missions flooding into the village. I need to be there, Sakura." He muttered.

She begrudgingly had to admit he was right, but... she had already promised to buy that pricey sake for Tsunade! Of course, she couldn't tell the black-haired man in front of her that. No doubt it'd be coming from his pocket and not hers. So while she was thinking of a response he was already at the door with everything he needed.

Sakura looked on, accepting that he had won the argument, while he opened the door. She was perplexed as he turned and their eyes meant; obsidian and jade. He smirked, and Sakura's eyebrows raised in confusion.

"Don't worry. I'll be sure to take care of you when I get back in two days." Sasuke said emotionlessly.

So as Sakura stared open-mouthed, Sasuke exited the building to report to the Hokage's Tower.

She came up with a reply minutes late, but stuttered it out anyways to the closed door.

"Y-you just have to have the last word in, don't you?"

-x-

A/N: Why hello there! Well, this is my first super long oneshot and I'm kind of... proud of myself. :D When I first started to write this, I was hoping it'd break at least 2,500 words. Imagine my freaking surprise, when it was almost at 5,000 (without the A/Ns too!).

I tried to make this fluffy, but I think I overdid it on the babbling descriptions. o__o I read it over and it seemed boring, but I decided to post it anyways. More so because of the quantity rather than the quality...

I'm surprised I didn't quit this fic halfway, but I was determined to finish it. So after an hour a night (I can only think clearly enough to write at night), for a weekish(?) I finished yesterday! I was almost going to post it last night, but realized I didn't even read it over, so that's why I'm posting it today.

Arriverderci! :)

Thank you to anyone who favourites/alerts this fic. A special thank you to anyone who reviews.