A/N: So I haven't written anything in a while because of school and all that junk. Plus! There are so many talented authors out there, so I've actually been reading a lot more than writing. I'm glad I decided to do drabbles instead of a multi-chapter story. I would never be able to finish it, hahaha
The sun was setting, painting the sky in streak of orange and gold with tints of pink colouring the bellies of the clouds. Sadly, none of the breathtaking beauty was taken in by the two ninja's slowly trudging their way home.
Both were exhausted from the day's events.
Sakura dealt with broken bones, minor cuts, severe gashes, poison, and shinobi trying to escape the hospital when they shouldn't have been moving at ALL. Her most interesting case of the day had to be when Ebisu came in suffering from blood loss. Apparently, Konohamaru was still using sexy-no-jutsu and other super variations of it (she would never forget the yaoi edition).
Sakura blew a piece of cotton candy coloured hair from her face, too lazy to actually raise her arm and brush her hair back. She glanced at Sasuke from the corner of her eyes to see him scowling (like that was new) but more deeply than normal.
As a jounin, it became part of his responsibility to help organize the next chuunin exam, which meant a lot of paperwork, a ton of political junk, and listening to the rich whine about who should fight who. Oh, and he got the joy of listening to stupid, pathetic genin going on and on about how they were going to kick ass and be soooo amazing.
It was like having multiple Narutos running around. And the only reason he could stand Naruto when they were doing the chuunin exam was because hurting him would have hurt Sasuke's chances at passing.
Not that it really mattered seeing how Naruto and Sasuke were the last ones to make chuunin out of the rookie nine. A fact they were constantly reminded of.
But while the day sucked, that was not the reason why Sasuke and Sakura were so dejectedly making their way home.
No. What had them down in the dumps was the fact that it was Naruto's week to cook.
They'd tried to avoid it by given him other chores. His shadow clones were amazingly fast at cleaning the spacious house, but seeing so much orange, and bright blonde hair zooming to and fro gave both of them massive headaches. On missions it was okay, but in a confined area was…colour blinding. Not only that, but when Naruto cleaned, something always ended up broken.
Then they gave him laundry duty, but quickly changed that when all the white clothes turned pink because he accidentally threw Sakura's red dress in there.
Of course, Naruto still wore some of his pink shirts claiming 'tough guys wear pink!' While Sasuke burned all of his…and tried to fry the blonde too ('What the hell! Rolling only spreads the flames!!').
The only thing left was cooking.
"Ready for a week of nothing but ramen?" Sakura asked with a wry grin as she pushed the door open.
Sasuke grunted in reply, stepping past her into the house.
Both froze as they hit with a mouth-watering aroma. They shared a brief look of shock before dashing to the kitchen.
Spread out on the table was a massive feast. Sakura could have sworn she saw sparkles surrounding the delicious looking food. And was that lobster?
Naruto looked up from setting the table and shot them a bright smile that would have put the sun to shame. "You're back! That's perfect, I just finished." He reached back to untie the frog printed apron. Where Naruto got his stuff, no one knew.
Sakura stared blankly at her blonde companion. Without taking her eyes off him, she slowly raised her hands up in the form of a seal.
"KAI!"
Mint green eyes flew open again. Nope, the food and Naruto were still there. Although Naruto was no longer smiling now and looked quite put-off.
She turned to see that Sasuke had activated his sharingan.
Naruto frowned and crossed his arms, "Oi! Knock it off!"
Red faded into black and Sakura snapped her jaw shut.
"I don't get why you're so surprised," Naruto grumbled as he took a seat. Sakura and Sasuke reluctantly followed, eyes still wide at the meal set before them. "I mean, cooking is a survival skill."
And he's never had anyone to cook for him Sakura thought. A feeling of sadness washed over her.
Sakura sighed, "It's not that I didn't think you could cook. More like, I didn't expect you to cook this well."
She murmured a quiet 'itadakimasu' and picked up her chopsticks. Across from her, Sasuke did the same.
Naruto chuckled lightly and reached over for the soy sauce. "You forget that I'm buds with Chouji. Plus, the ramen guy's always been pretty nice to me and sometimes he'd show me how to make some stuff."
Sakura tried some of the noodles and after her first bite, she almost ran away with the whole plate. It was simply amazing!
"Wow, Naruto! This is really yummy!" She scanned the table to see what she should try next. It all looked so good!
Her appreciation of his cooking must have clearly showed on her face because Naruto broke into another warm, sunny grin with a touch of pride.
"Thanks Sakura!" He turned to look at his other team-mate expectantly, "Well bastard? What do you think?"
Sasuke was munching on a piece of fish. His black eyes rose to meet the cerulean gaze. "It's good," he said slowly.
Naruto rolled his eyes. "Just good? Then again, coming from you, I guess that translates in to 'OH MY GOD!! THIS IS THE BEST THING I'VE EVER EATEN!! I'VE DIED AND GONE TO HEAVEN!!' in regular people talk."
Sasuke scoffed and didn't bother replying. Instead, he loaded his bowl with more food. Naruto chuckled again before getting something for himself.
"Damn, I am good! This is delicious!"
Both Sakura and Sasuke quirked their eyebrows and sent the blonde an amused look. "Praising yourself, dobe? That's kind of sad."
Naruto harrumphed at the comment, "You're just jealous of my awesome cooking abilities."
"Seriously though, Naruto, if you can cook like this why do you always eat ramen?" Sakura asked curiously as she reached for some of the fish Sasuke seemed so hooked on.
"Huh?" Blue eyes blinked at the unexpected question before he broke into a giant smile. "Because ramen's the best!!"
Sakura sighed softly. Duh, what had she been expecting?
"Besides, it seems kind of silly to go through all of this for a meal for just one person."
Both the pink haired girl and raven froze as a guilty silence descended upon them.
It was true. When they were Team 7, they never thought to go over to Naruto's for dinner or invite him over. In fact, they didn't often see each other outside of training and missions.
Then when Sasuke left., all that had been in Sakura's minds was how to get him back.
She felt guilt worming its way in her stomach and judging from the twitch in Sasuke's fingers he probably felt the same.
"Usuratonkachi, you made too much food." Although he has a funny way of showing it she thought, but Sasuke did effectively dispel the dark atmosphere.
"Hm?" Naruto looked at the spread before him. It pretty much took up the whole table. He rubbed the back of his neck embarrassedly with a little laugh. "I guess I did, didn't I? I got a little carried away. Oh well! Guess that means we'll have leftovers."
They continued eating in comfortable silence just savouring the taste and enjoying each other's presence.
"Maybe next time we should invite Kakashi-sensei over," Sakura said thoughtfully as she gathered the plates.
Naruto's eyes brightened. "Hey, yeah! Maybe we can finally catch him without his mask!"
Sakura laughed and agreed, although she was kind of peeved that they still haven't seen his face after so many years.
"Thanks for dinner, Naruto. I don't think I've ever eaten anything so delicious before. Sasuke and I will take care of the dishes."
Blue eyes stared back at her in surprise before a blush spread across whiskered cheeks. He bashfully ducked his head down. "You don't have to thank me, Sakura," he mumbled quietly.
Sasuke collected the dishes Sakura missed and placed them in the sink. He and Sakura shared a look and an evil smile.
Naruto was doing all the cooking now, whether he liked it or not.
