Sakura-chan's Homemade Meals
1. Morning Bento
It was an early winter morning when the sun was just coming when Naruto heard knocks on his door. At first, he decided to ignore it, hoping that it would go away. So, when the knocking became insistent, he groaned into his pillows and grudgingly rose from his cosy, warm bed. Dragging his feet towards the door, he inwardly grumbled at the unknown visitor's lack of tact. He was not a morning person, this was a fact well-known to all those in Konoha, even the ones whom he barely had any contact with.
So it was truly a surprise when he saw it was his rosette-haired teammate, who knew this better than anyone, standing in front of his home, tapping her feet impatiently as she waited for him to come out.
"Here." A small box was unceremoniously thrust into his hand as soon as he emerged, before the door was even completely opened. Barely awake, Naruto almost missed and dropped the box.
"Sakura-chan, w-wha…?" He used his free hand to rub the sleepiness from his eyes, all the while staring at the little mysterious box in his hand. It was neatly wrapped and warm to the touch.
Wait, warm?
All his grogginess left him in an instant, and suddenly staring at the little box became the only thing he could do.
It was a bento box…
As he shifted the box in his hand, he could tell it was fully packed and it was neatly wrapped to prevent the heat from escaping in this cold weather, and now that he brought it closer to his face, he could smell mouthwatering scent emanating from it.
This wasn't a dream, was it? This… this couldn't be… his long coveted object of his dream of dreams Sakura-chan's homemade meal?
Granted, he had never had any meal made by her (didn't stop him from pestering her about it though), so he didn't know if it would taste as good as it smelled. But going by what she had made (mostly medicines), it didn't bode well. But that was all beside the point. The point was that Sakura, his hot-tempered, proud, tsundere (because he knew all along that she loved him despite her continual rejection of his always overly dramatic confession) teammate cooked for him! She handmade the bento for him!
Surely he must be dreaming? He pinched his own cheeks to test if he was awake.
Sure enough it hurt, so this must be real…
Finally he tore his gaze away from the seemingly unreal object in his hand to look at her. Because of the morning light shining directly into his eyes, he couldn't be sure if he was seeing things right, but he thought Sakura-chan was blushing as she looked away, arms folded in front of her.
"F- from your last physical check-up, you need more nutrients in your diet, so… I… ah… I'm just making sure you eat right!" She said, maybe with a little bit of defensiveness, or was that his imagination playing tricks on him? Wait, did she actually stutter? As he continued to stare at her speechlessly, Sakura seemed to become even more flustered. The pink on her cheeks seemed to intensify as she blurted out.
"Just make sure you eat everything, baka!"
With that she stormed off into the morning light, her deep red winter clothes billowing behind her in the cold breeze. He stared after her, mesmerized by the sight. His eyes never leaving her form until she disappeared in the throng of people that were starting to emerge below his home.
As he stood there at the door, in the cold winter morning, he couldn't really tell whether the warmth enveloping him was from the sun or from the heat of the bento in his hand.
When he finally made it back into his room, he gingerly placed the still warm bento box on the table. Slowly, he peeled the cloth wrapping off to reveal a pastel yellow box with a small green clover drawn on the lid. His grin (that he sported since the moment Sakura-chan hurriedly left) grew even wider. He eagerly snatched off the lid to see what was inside.
His mouth watered and he had to wipe the drool off as he saw rice cooked just perfectly with teriyaki chicken. On the side, he saw multi-colored vegetables. He scrunched his nose and poked them with chopsticks to find that they were softer than usual, then realized she, who knew how he desperately spent a large portion of his life avoiding his veggies, probably soft boiled them to take the smell he hated away and made it easier to wash them down.
His heart felt so warm, and something suspiciously like tear rose to his eyes and he couldn't stop smiling like an idiot. This was something he had dreamed of for so long. Gingerly, he picked up a baby carrot and popped it in his mouth. The smell didn't quite disappear altogether, but kami knew it was the most delicious thing he ever tasted.
For the first time in forever, he took his time eating his breakfast instead of sweeping everything into his mouth in less than five minutes. He did not finish until an hour and a half later. He didn't care that by the time he took the last bite, the meal was already cold in the winter air. He savored every mouthful as if it was his last, and didn't leave anything behind.
Not even the greens he fervently hated.
Author's note
Thanks all for reading. This idea popped into my head when I was simultaneously looking through pictures of bento and tumblr pics of NaruSaku, and somehow the two got mixed together, resulting in a spurt of impulse that compelled me to write this out of my system.
The end of Naruto (chapter 700 in particular) left me feeling strange. I'm not unhappy, but nor am I satisfied with it. At the risk of being ostracized, I'll say that I support both NaruSaku and SasuSaku, or even better, NaruSakuSasu (in no particular order). To me, Team 7 is codependent on each other, and without one, the others aren't complete.
With the lack of NaruSaku action in the final chapter, I wanted to write something like this to satisfying my head-canon. I hope all who read will enjoy this little piece. I have definitely enjoyed writing it, and definitely want to do more.
Maybe a suggestion of what food Sakura-chan should cook for her Naruto? Maybe that will give me another the dose of impulse? What food would Naruto want to eat (or should) apart from ramen?