The Uchiha Fraud
Chapter Six
Judging by the amount of light from the window, Sakura presumed that she must have napped for a good four hours. Although there were still traces of daylight, it seemed that the sun would be setting soon—much to her dismay. If there was anything that Sakura hated more than creases in her clothing and tags sticking out of people's t-shirts, it was letting a whole day go to waste without doing anything remotely productive. Sitting up from her earlier position, she stretched lazily, cracking a few stiff areas in her back in the process.
Sakura instantly grimaced after recognizing the "dry" feeling throughout her whole body.
"Ugh," she groaned, grabbing the cup of water to try and quench her growing thirst. As an afterthought, Sakura looked around the room, straining her ears to try and listen for any signs of life in the house.
Muffled voices were all she could recognize, but it didn't take a genius to figure out that said voices were talking—correction, arguing. With a sigh, Sakura kicked the blanket off of her and stood up. In the mood for a quick snack to appease her grumbling stomach, she headed towards the kitchen.
"When's Sakura-chan waking up?" Naruto grumbled, waiting impatiently for the water to boil for his ramen. "At least she talks to me."
"Someone has to," Sasuke retorted, adjusting the glasses resting on the bridge of his nose. Although he had taken the day off to "tend" to his sick wife, there were still documents to peruse and papers to sign. Unfortunately, he only managed to run through everything for about an hour before the blonde barged into his house, pestering him until Sasuke left his home office. "Don't you have work?"
"Lunch break," Naruto replied without missing a beat. "Not sure if you've ever heard of it."
"Last time I checked, lunch breaks only lasted an hour," Sasuke said pointedly. "It's been four."
"Yeah, yeah," the blonde waved off, smiling brightly as he picked up his chopsticks, shoving noodles into his mouth. "Be-mmf-ides, Shiki-mff-shu is mm-oing every—" Naruto swallowed, "thing."
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"Knowing him, he's probably been napping on the job," Sakura interrupted, raising a brow at the mess Naruto was making on the table.
Quickly gulping down the food in his mouth, Naruto waved excitedly at her. "Evening, Sakura-chan!"
"Quit spilling, dobe," Sasuke reprimanded, closing the folder he was working on. He then moved his attention onto Sakura, observing her before clicking his pen and putting it down. "You're alive and kicking."
"If the medicine didn't do it, that long nap did," Sakura yawned, taking a seat on the chair closest to her. Looking at the piles of folders in front of Sasuke, she raised a brow. "Didn't you take the day off?"
Without looking up, Sasuke flipped a page. "Hn."
"Why are you still working?" Sakura asked, then turned to Naruto when she received no answer. "Why is he still working?"
"Workaholic," he replied cheerfully, sipping the remnants of his bowl.
"Hardly," Sasuke snapped, straightening the stack of papers. "Unlike you, I have responsibilities."
"If you were smart, you'd hire an assistant to do all the work for you," Naruto stated proudly, patting his stomach. "Just admit you like working. No one here's judging you."
Sakura coughed back a laughter before an argument could ensue, pushing back her chair to stand up. "Do you have anything to eat?" Earning a blank look from the raven-haired male, Sakura corrected herself. "Sorry, stupid question. What's there to eat?"
"Check the fridge."
Ignoring the slight irritation in his voice, Sakura rummaged through the fridge, looking for something to munch on. Grabbing the two red apples inside of the plastic bag, Sakura set it onto the kitchen counter, cutting them into small slices before depositing them onto a plate. Turning back to the fridge, she frowned after digging through the drawers and behind the cartons of milk—not finding what she was looking for.
"You don't have peanut butter?"
"No one here eats peanut butter and jelly sandwiches," Sasuke informed her, flipping through more papers. "And you're eating apples."
"I know," she said, picking up a slice and eating it. "It's no good without peanut butter."
"Peanut butter and apples?" Naruto asked, his nose twitching in disgust. "That's gross."
"So is ramen," Sakura retaliated, causing the blonde to choke on his noodles.
"H-Hey!"
Sakura's small laughter came to a stop at the sound of the front door opening. The three looked up towards the kitchen door as it swung open, revealing a bunch of grocery bags and a small figure behind it.
"Sakura honey! You look better!" Mikoto exclaimed, setting the fresh vegetables onto the counter. "Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun, put the food away for me?"
Naruto agreed right away, carefully removing everything from the bag and putting it on the counter while Sasuke pretended that he hadn't heard anything. "Hey teme," Naruto called out, narrowing his eyes. "Aren't you going to help?"
"I'm busy."
"She asked both of us!" he retorted, almost dropping the box of angel pasta.
"She said your name first," Sasuke said nonchalantly. "Not my problem."
"You—"
"Sasuke-kun!" Mikoto warned, shooting him a look.
"Ha, you just got told off by your mom," Naruto provoked, earning a glare from the other male.
Making sure that the two boys were doing their jobs, Mikoto's eyes lingered on them before turning to Sakura, who was watching Sasuke and Naruto bicker while finishing up her apples. "Did you rest well?" she asked, raising a hand to Sakura's forehead.
"Sasuke-kun took care of me," Sakura assured, attempting to sound sincere.
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"What? You just sat on your ass—"
"Shut up, idiot."
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Afraid that her mother-in-law might've heard Naruto, Sakura was instantly relieved when she saw Mikoto smiling happily to herself. "I'm glad!" she said, then lowered her voice. "I made a few stops here and there to give you guys some time alone." Before Sakura could respond, Mikoto clapped her hands together in determination.
"Now," she started, grabbing an apron off the hook. "Would you like to help me make dinner?"
Sakura suddenly felt uneasy. "I actually don't know—"
"It's Sasuke-kun's favorite dish," Mikoto added, causing Sakura to pause. "It's very simple! Just in case you want to cook something for him later on, I'm sure he'd like it."
She nudged Sakura softly with a wink.
Sakura peeked over at Sasuke, who was currently preoccupied with organizing the food, making snide remarks in between Naruto's chattering. The right thing would be to agree, but the last time she tried to cook a meal, she almost burned down her apartment along with the building itself. It was a good thing that she was close friends with Iruka, the owner of the complex, or else he would have kicked her out the moment the fire was extinguished.
Cringing at the memory, Sakura forced herself to smile.
Just do it, Sakura told herself, biting her lip. Compromise.
"I'd love to."
After the groceries were all put away, Mikoto ushered Naruto and Sasuke out of the kitchen, claiming that they'd just ruin everything. Sakura thought it was ironic, since she was sure that their culinary skills exceeded hers—if she even had any to begin with. Give her a scalpel and she'd be able to cut with fine precision, but ask her to cook macaroni and you were asking for trouble.
Sakura didn't even want to know how she managed to burn noodles in boiling water.
"Now, we'll be making pasta," Mikoto began, handing Sakura the bag full of tomatoes. "Just rinse these and place them in here, and when the water starts to boil a little, take them out, peel and slice."
Sakura went towards the sink, turning on the faucet and began to rinse the tomatoes. Careful not to squash them in her grip, she held each of the tomatoes gingerly in the palm of her hand, slowly rinsing with her fingers. Mikoto chuckled softly as she watched Sakura struggle by the sink.
"They're tomatoes, dear," Mikoto spoke up, concealed laughter in her voice. "It's not going to hurt you."
Sakura flushed.
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Setting the rinsed tomatoes in the pot, she turned on the stove and put the lid in place. Sakura glanced over, amazed at how Mikoto chopped the basil so quickly. Mikoto - as whimsical and exuberant as she was - really shined while she was in the kitchen. Sakura found herself envying the woman who still looked gorgeous while sweating.
"Are they going to eat all of these?" Sakura asked, gesturing towards the tomatoes.
Mikoto had bought two bags of the red fruit (or was it a vegetable?), and only half were in the pot while the rest were sliced and distributed neatly between four plates, with the exception of Sasuke's. His plate was given extra slices of tomatoes, taking up a quarter of the plate by itself.
"Knowing Sasuke-kun, they're probably not enough," Mikoto replied in amusement.
It had taken approximately forty-five minutes to finish the tomato and garlic pasta.
It was a miracle, Sakura concluded, that she managed to come out of the kitchen unscathed. Well, that wasn't completely true. She accidentally nicked herself while grating the parmesan cheese, but the cut wasn't too deep so it hardly counted at all. But it was Naruto who was unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of Mikoto's wrath. He had waltzed into the kitchen ten minutes earlier and took it upon himself to "check" on the sauce—almost burning it altogether when he turned the heat higher, claiming that it'd cook faster. The Uchiha matriarch was downright scary when she wanted to be, and the incident was solid proof that she wasn't someone to be reckoned with.
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"So full!" Naruto patted his stomach a good two times for emphasis. "Not as good as my ramen though."
"With the amount you eat each day, I'm surprised that you haven't died yet," Sasuke claimed, eating the last of his tomatoes.
Though Sasuke made no indication as to how the food was, Mikoto had informed Sakura beforehand that one could tell how much he enjoyed the dish depending on what was left on the plate. And judging by the spotless dish before him, Sakura came to a conclusion that he liked it more than he put on—but that was only expected, since it was his favorite food.
"Now you won't have to wait for my visits to eat this," Mikoto chirped, taking a sip of her water, smiling secretly to herself.
"Can't you just have one of the chefs cook it?" Sakura wondered, wiping her mouth with a napkin. "They have the recipe, right?"
It was Naruto who answered.
"This bastard here is picky about everything," Naruto grumbled. "If his mom doesn't cook it, he won't eat it."
"Is there anything that you do like?" Sakura muttered to no one in particular, though she couldn't help but feel a twinge of disappointment.
Despite accepting the fact that she was no cook and had no right being in the kitchen —ever—making dinner for someone and going through all the difficult tasks to see their expression after eating it made Sakura's heart swell with pride. Though she only helped out Mikoto by doing simple tasks, she still felt that burst of pleasure from seeing Naruto scarf down the pasta or Sasuke diligently eating the tomatoes she prepared. It was satisfying to her, to the point that Sakura was hoping for a repeat in the near future.
"I'm sure he'll love anything you make," Mikoto whispered encouragingly, sensing the girl's change in mood.
Doubt it, Sakura thought.
But she felt grateful nonetheless for the kind words.
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"All right," Mikoto drawled, beginning to gather the plates together. "We cooked, you clean."
The stern look she sent at them left no room for argument.
Author's Note: That macaroni incident? True story. Raise your hand if you're also guilty of being culinarily clueless! Just made that up so not sure if that even makes sense... also, the past five chapters were edited (heavily?) to make the plot and relationship flow and appear less awkward. Thank you to one very kind Unisawr, for the words and giving me that little "kick" I needed!
Gave you all a little "Sakura" time in this chapter, but when the SasuSaku starts weaving its way in the plot, I promise it'll be worth the wait. Happy belated Christmas, and don't party too hard during New Year's Eve!