Fatherhood chapter 2: Dreams and awful soup
It had not been long since Ino had left the house on her day out with Sakura and Hinata, leaving Sai and Inojin in the living room watching television together. They were currently watching a popular children's cartoon involving a group of fictional superheroes fighting an evil monster, it was a cartoon that Inojin would watch semi regularly with his father when he would get home from work as long as he wasn't too tired.
Although Sai struggled to understand why someone could possibly enjoy watching a show which he found quite mundane especially compared to the missions he would regularly take as a teenager, seeing Inojin giggle and attempt to intensely keep up with the on screen action gave him a warm sensation in his heart.
These were the moments with his son that he cherished most and wished they would never end. However, Sai's job often meant the opportunities to be able to relax with his son like this were few and far between and no where near as frequent as he would have liked.
Sai had been working at the Leafs interrogation and torture force where he was captain for a number of years now and was often working alongside the infamous commanding officer Ibiki Morino. Sai took over the role from Ino's father due to his background as an elite ANBU ninja, his skill in interrogation and as well as because the Yamanaka clan higher ups desired to keep the senior level job within their clan.
However, the job often meant he spent most days carrying out various techniques which were often gory in a dark underground room when Leaf shinobi would capture criminals who required torture to prevent the village's secrets being out and used by rouge shinobi.
Although Sai's violent techniques were no where near the gruesome level of his commander Ibiki, his training with ANBU from his childhood meant he was not ablest to using such violent methods which was one of the main reasons why Sai refused to allow Ino herself to take the job and instead volunteered himself due to knowing her general discomfort with torture methods and interrogation.
Such a job meant Sai would often work from morning till evening and even some late nights which meant he was not able to be with his family as regularly as he would have liked. He began to realise he needed to savour such moments and time together with his son as Inojin was getting older day by day and it would only be a few more years till his son would enter the ninja academy like his mother and their childhood friends did.
Sai never attended the academy himself due to being a war orphan and being brainwashed into removing all his emotions so he could work more effectively for ROOT, a branch of ANBU which was considered at the time one of the Leafs dirty secrets. Sai's main dream was for his son to have a much different life than the one he did.
Sai wanted Inojin to be able to form intimate bonds by making many friends and to be able to express himself unlike his own life where in his teens after he became free from Danzo, he still struggled emotionally and often came across as cold and distant. He had hopes that Inojin would grow and be as expressive and extroverted as his mother was rather than a stoic man like himself. Sai had often heard from his wife about how popular and cool she was considered back in her academy days, although this fact was often objected by the likes of Sakura, Shikamaru and Choji.
Nonetheless, Sai had no trouble believing Ino was as amazing when she was young as her stories about herself made her out to be and hoped Inojin would take after her in terms of personality so he could have a much more enjoyable childhood rather than one like his which was filled with sadness and trauma.
As Sai continued to muse about his own life and Inojin's future, a sudden vibration could be felt on his lap as the sound of rumbling could be heard coming from Inojin's stomach. It had been an hour or so since the Yamanaka's had woken to eat breakfast but despite the relatively short time that had passed, Inojin's appetite was often large and furious, something which he had certainly not inherited from his mother.
Sai looked down at the young Yamanaka placed on his lap and a red tint immediately grew on Inojin's pale cheeks which brought a giant grin onto Sai's face. 'Beautiful... just like his mother' Sai thought to himself.
"Inojin are you hungry?" Sai asked his son needlessly. Inojin nodded his head in a quick manner before dropping himself from Sai's lap. The tiny blonde was able to speak well and profoundly but just like his father he often only spoke when required, although this certainly didn't mean he was innocent and angelic like in his words when he did speak as his adorable face would mistakenly suggest.
He had a very mischievous and cunning side to him which Ino was convinced he had been picking up from watching Sai. The idea that Inojin was developing his personality from watching him gave Sai a warm feeling in his heart no matter how many times he would try to convince himself he didn't want his son to grow up to be like him.
In the middle of his thoughts, Sai leapt from his seat and reached out his hand to the child before guiding him to the kitchen. "Your mother said she left some ingredients in the kitchen, lets see what I can cook up for you" Sai said as Inojin responded with his trademark smile he inherited from Sai. The two proceeded into the Kitchen where the tableware used for breakfast was still laying out as Ino didn't have the time to wash up before she rushed out.
Inojin climbed onto his chair before questioning his father "You've never made me lunch before dad, do you even know how to cook?" Sai turned around to flash his son a smile before proceeding to look at the ingredients Ino had left in their fridge.
It was true, the cooking in their home was often left to Ino but that didn't mean Sai was completely useless in the kitchen or so he thought. Upon reflection, Sai couldn't actually remember the last time he cooked a meal that wasn't instant ready rations which he would prepare on long distance missions.
He could vaguely recall cooking up a 3 course meal when he had his third date with Ino at his home years ago but he remembered receiving a lot of help and guidance from Sakura in preparing it as the pink head knew her blonde best friends taste buds inside out.
Nonetheless Sai decided that he should probably get started and the worst case scenario would be he could slap some lettuce in-between bread and call that lunch to give to the tiny blonde. But as Sai had a ponder through the various ingredients Ino had left behind, for the life of him he couldn't make out what on earth any of these were.
She had bought a bunch of groceries earlier in the week and had placed them all individually into labelled containers, clearly in preparation so Sai could know what each thing was for when she went out. But all this meant was that Sai could identify the names of all the ingredients but had no clue how he was suppose to make lunch with them.
Ino was constantly dieting and always tried to make sure her husband and son were also eating as healthily as possible when they were at home. This meant she would continually be cooking up meals that Sai could only imagine gluttons like Naruto and Choji would vomit at the sight of. They were green, healthy and not very appetising but it made Ino happy if they all ate it together as a family and if it was good for their health he couldn't exactly complain about it. Only now was he beginning to appreciate how much effort she must have been putting into making meals using these ingredients.
"Avocado.., aubergines..., quintal..., houmous..., lentils... WHAT ON EARTH ARE THESE" Sai screamed in his head.
Sai's food palette was rather basic, the most complicated thing he would ever make himself to eat was tofu and so the items in their kitchen seemed almost alien like to him. He once again turned around to look at his son who began to look a lot more visibly frustrated that he still hadn't received his lunch yet which caused Sai to begin to panic. There wasn't even any bread for him to mock up a sandwich by combining it with a bunch of the green things that Ino had left which he presumed were some sought of vegetable.
"Inojin... what does your mother normally make you for lunch" Sai asked although he doubted his son would have any idea what meals consisting of these bizarre ingredients would be called. "Yesterday mom made me soup for lunch" Inojin replied. "Soup huh..." Sai responded, although it was not as specific as he would have liked, at least he had some sort of idea now of what he's suppose to be making using these ingredients.
Sai rolled up his sleeves as he began preparing some sort of soup which he could only hope tasted somewhat edible. Inojin began to watch his father curiously, almost in star struck admiration as the raven haired man effortlessly threw various vegetables, spices and what looked like meat which resembled something that would come from an alien's foot all into a massive pot on top of the stove.
"Inojin, I think you're really going to like this. It's a Yamanaka secret recipe, I learnt how to make this unique soup from your grandmother" Sai said. He hoped if he tried some pre meal psychology on his son to make him think that he had made something that was an amazing recipe, then somehow his son might actually enjoy it rather than the actual fact that he just threw the least weird looking ingredients into the pot and hoped for the best.
"Wow dad! Its smells delicious, I can't wait to tell mom about this recipe!" Inojin responded. Sai could tell he was being sarcastic, because the soup smelt like crap. 'Well he certainly does seem to be taking off after me, a lying little devil' Sai laughed to himself. The soup was done and Sai began pouring two bowls, one for himself and a much smaller one for Inojin. The only way to describe what the soup looked like would be it resembled what Guy sensei would puke up any time he was forced to be on a boat, it certainly smelled similar to that too.
How on earth Ino was able to make breakfast, lunch and dinner daily using ingredients like this Sai would never know. Sure her 'healthy meals' weren't exactly Ichiraku ramen levels of delicious, but they sure were a hell of a lot more delicious compared to what ever monstrosity that vaguely resembled soup that Sai had cooked up this morning.
Sai thought to himself that the only positive that could come out of eating his soup was a greater appreciation of his wife's home cooking. He grimaced as he placed Inojin's bowl on the table in front of him and sat alongside him. The two exchanged glances before picking up their spoons. A moment of hesitation was mutually shared between the both of them before they both gulped and finally placed their spoons deep into the soup and took one giant sip...
A/N: Sorry for taking a while to update, the 2nd chapter took me a lot longer than I anticipated and this fic is probably going to be a chapter or two longer than I originally planned. But anyway thank you to everyone who has followed/faved the story so far, I really appreciate it. The next chapter will reveal the effects of Sai's 'soup' and will also involve some fun appearances from a few other Naruto characters. Hope you enjoy!