A/N: Thanks for the reviews, they were great and seriously had me thinking about a few things! Here's Chapter 4, a little present for the weekend!
Warning: not beta'd.
Summary: He was a legend–strong, driven and commanding. It would only be right that she would share those same attributes. What are you to do when you were born with so much ambition, yet you lack the abilities that you once had–that once made you powerful. Simple. You become a legend in your own right. In which Haruno Sakura is Madara's Reincarnation (BAMF Sakura, AU, Reincarnation)
Chapter 4
"Come on Sakura."
"No!"
"Please, will you do it for mommy?"
"No! I don wanna'. It nasty."
"I know, but you have to eat it. It's good for you."
"No!"
Mebuki gave up.
For the last fifteen minutes she had been trying to feed Sakura her vegetables, which she ruefully regretted now that she was trying to calm down the angry toddler. At almost 2 years old Sakura had proven to be a handful and quite stubborn.
"She's not eating her food again?" Kizashi entered into the kitchen causing Mebuki to sigh with relief and aggravation.
"No. She ate her fish and rice, but she won't eat any of her radish." Mebuki picked up the fork and tried to feed it to Sakura only for her to scoot as far as she could in her seat and turn her face away.
In any other circumstance it would have been funny, but she couldn't find humor in her daughter being so difficult.
"Maybe she should eat something else." Kizashi instantly regretted what he said when he felt the mood turn sour. His back straightened when he felt his wives cold glare turn on him. He was scared to look at her.
"You're right." She said sardonically. "Maybe I should make something more pleasing to her palate. I bet she would love some carrots, peas, maybe even some edamame. I bet she would eat those. But wait, she does that with all of her vegetables! So I guess I should just cut out vegetables from her diet. I'm pretty sure that she can just survive off of rice, meat, and sweets. I bet both of you would like that!" At the end of her rant, her blonde hair was flying everywhere, and Kizashi was hell bent on fleeing.
"I di...didn't mean it like that." Kizashi stuttered putting his hands up in surrender.
"Of course you didn't!" Mebuki was still angrily waving around Sakura's fork, and Kizashi was worried that she was going to stab him with it.
"You think that I'm making a big deal out of this, but I'm not! This is about discipline. If I let her think that she can always have her way, she will go through life with that sort of mentality! And I will not have my child growing up to be some sort of menace to society." She ended while placing her hands on her hips.
"Ok… Okay you're right. I'm sorry. She should eat her vegetables. In fact I think she should have even more vegetables!" Kizashi was desperate to get back into his wives good graces. Mebuki almost forgot that the source of her rant was watching her argue.
When they looked back at Sakura she was slowly stuffing her radish slices in her mouth watching them with an interested twinkle in her eye that almost seemed mirthful.
Mebuki's mood did a complete 180 as she excitedly watched the toddler eat. "Oh! What a good girl!" She continued to praise Sakura while simultaneously forgetting her anger. Kizashi let out a relieved breathe.
He was used to his wives temper, but he knew that lately she had been a little more stressed out with him barely being their due to his hectic work schedule, Sakura's increasing stubbornness, and their new house.
In the wake of the Kyuubi attack, the civilian sector was moved further from the villages center and coincidentally closer to the Hokage mountain since it felt that it offered the most protection, symbolically of course.
While their house wasn't destroyed by the attack, like most people, the Haruno's house suffered some structural damage that made it difficult to continuing living their so instead they decided it would be best to move into a better place. So with what little savings they had and money from the insurance, they decided to move into a small house that was to the east of the mountain.
The house was worn and needed a lot of updating, but it had a lot of land and they found that it was the best for their little family. At least it was at the beginning when Kizashi had the time to properly tend to the house. But lately he spent more time in business meetings than he did with his own family. He could tell that it deeply bothered his wife.
He felt a headache coming on thinking about all the meetings and contracts he had to attend to in the upcoming week.
"You seem stressed out." Mebuki remarked while washing Sakura's empty plate and bringing Kizashi out of his thoughts.
He thought about lying to her about his frustrations, but he knew that she would see right through it.
Sakura seemed to occupied her time with playing with her lion sippy cup and splashing juice everywhere. Mebuki didn't seem to pay it any mind as she instead focused on him.
"It's just… I'm not sure what I'm doing. They want me to go on a business trip to water country next week, and I still have a lot of paperwork to get done before then which I'm not even sure I can finish."
"Again. It seems that lately you've been going on a lot of trips." She rang out the dish towel and slowly started to wipe away the mess that Sakura was making. "How long will you be gone?"
"About a week this time." Kizashi sighed while raking his hand through his messy hair.
"That long." She sounded defeated, a tone that Kizashi wished she didn't need to use.
"I know. With everything that has happened the past year, we've been focusing on rebranding and expanding the company. Unfortunately that means precuring international clients."
"But why does it have to be you?" Mebuki finished wiping the counter and placed the towel into the sink before turning to face him.
"I guess I'm the youngest person there who has enough experience in order to lead negotiations." He lightly shrugged.
"But they know that you have a family too. It seems reckless to put so much responsibility solely on you." Mebuki lowered her voice as she touched the bags under his eyes. "I don't like seeing you so stressed out. And I would hate for you to miss out on Sakura growing up because you were constantly out on business meetings."
"I know. I hate it too, and I'm not sure how long I can continue like this." It was a confession that surprised both of them because they knew how excited Kizashi was when he first got his job as a finance representative at the Hokito Trading Company.
"What do you mean by that?"
"I think that it may be time for me to look for a better job."
"Seriously!" It was a stark contrast to the disappointed tone she used not to long ago. Kizashi was glad.
"Well there's an opening at the civilian government sector. They have some new auditing positions open that I was thinking of applying for."
"What? Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Mebuki was both excited and confused.
"I didn't want to worry you, and I wasn't sure if it was something that I wanted to do or even apply for since I'm already working a well paying job. Also with us trying to get back on our feet, I'm not sure if it's the best move."
"Don't worry about that, I just want you to be happy. We will be okay and if anything, I can take up extra shifts at the bakery. And plus, with you home more, you'll just have to learn how to fix things to save on cost." She winked at him.
Kizashi breathed a relieved laugh. Although he knew that Mebuki wasn't the type to care about money or material objects, the real reason why he continued working at his job was that it paid really well. But unfortunately at this point, his job was making him miss out on so much with his family that he slowly started to hate it.
Mebuki once again cut through his thoughts.
"But what brought up the change? I thought that you hated politics let alone working for the government." And it was true, Kizashi was known to hate politics. He viewed all people of political association as being greedy and self absorbed–from civil servants, like the civilian police force, to public officials, like the congressional committee. There was a time that he would have preferred eating gravel than being in the same room as such corrupt people.
"You're right, I hated politics and still do. However, this village is in the midst of rebuilding itself and if we aren't careful more slimy good-for-nothings will gain control. I don't want Sakura to grow up in a village full of corruption, and I can already see the foundations of it happening with the government turning public opinion against the Uchiha."
Even though the Uchiha had saved countless civilians during the events of last year, they were still being persecuted for not playing an active role against the defeat of the demon. Moreover there were rumors circulating that they had something to do with the monster being released.
"Oh yes, I heard. There are countless rumors about them controlling the monster, or something absurd like that. Honestly, give people a reason and they will make up all kinds of things." Mebuki couldn't understand how people could believe that sort of foolishness. After all the Uchiha were one of the oldest clans of the village. It was their legacy, and they were sworn to protect it. Why would they want to destroy something they helped build?
"I agree, and I just feel as though there needs to be more people who rely on more than just gossip. This is why I'm a numbers guy. I like facts and hardcore evidence more than heresay. I know that I have a long way to go in order to inspire change, but I'm willing to do that."
Mebuki chuckled. "You're sounding like a politician there. You're readying your speech and everything. If you're not careful, you might not find you self in finance and instead you'll be running for city council."
Kizashi scowled making Mebuki's eyes twinkled wickedly. She turned to the sticky toddler that seemed to have emptied out the contents of her bottle.
"Hey Sakura-chan!" She said, and the toddlers bright eyes turned towards her as she chewed on the top of the bottle.
"Otou-san is going into government, pretty soon he's going to be a politician. He's going to gain weight, go bald, and dramatically age. Imagine all the laws he'll make. He's going to declare every friday as national 'style-your-hair-like-mine' day." She pushed her hair up into random points on top of her head mockingly making Sakura giggle. "Oh the tragedy!"
Kizashi pouted and turned towards Sakura.
"Why is your kaa-san so mean to me?" He fake cried, and Mebuki playfully rolled her eyes. "She's always so mean to me. No one loves me!" He dramatically exclaimed hoping to get Sakura on his side.
"No daddy, I lov' you!"
"Really, Sakura! I knew that I can count on you. Give your daddy a hug." He threw his arms up to hug the toddler, expected her to hug him back as well. However, he wasn't prepared to be wacked in his forehead with her bottle.
He fell back in shock.
When Kizashi got up, both Sakura and Mebuki were laughing, and Kizashi was left with a red imprint on his forehead.
"She's your daughter alright! Just as heartless!" Kizashi fake cried.
Author's Note: I swear people, I have the attention span of a rock. It took me a week to write this because I could not focus (sigh). I literally forced myself to write this chapter by locking myself in a room and turning off the wifi to my computer until I finished it. I even told myself that I wouldn't eat anything until I at least had a rough written. You would think that it would be incentive enough. BUT NO, it didn't work. Instead I stared blankly up at my ceiling for a freaking hour straight. Now I have a new respect for these writers who update like daily/every week.
Anyway, I hate writing filler chapters, but I can understand that the fillers are needed, especially when it includes some important information and foreshadowing (wink wink).
Tell me your thoughts, and you're predictions on some of the hints I dropped in this chapter with Kizashi's newfound interest in Konoha's government.
Also isn't Sakura such a little brat, lol.