Chapter 9

"Mr. Uchiha," Sakura said enthusiastically the moment he stepped back into the kitchen thirty minutes later. "Come and meet Hiro."

As soon as Sasuke saw his randy little chef, he knew that he was in trouble. Hiro was about five feet eight, handsome as any movie star, and utterly devastating to women. He flirted outrageously, and Sasuke was sure that more than one of his dinner guests had succumbed to the man. But Sasuke never asked; he figured it was better not to know the details of his chef's private life. As it was, the man traveled wherever Sasuke went and prepared the most delicious meals imaginable. In return for the food, Sasuke overlooked certain personal foibles.

But now, seeing Hiro sitting by Sakura, her hand in his, he wanted to tell his chef to get out and never return.

"This is the man responsible for the wonderful food Kenji loves so much. It seems that Naruto told a bit of a fib. It isn't really a company trying to open a line of baby food, but Hiro is trying to go into business. And he lives right here in Konoha. Isn't that amazing?"

"Yes, truly," Sasuke said as he took an electrical cord out of Kenji's mouth.

"And I've been encouraging him to open his own business. Don't you think he should?"

Hiro looked up at his employer with sparkling eyes, obviously enjoying the whole masquerade.

"I hear he has a kitchen that can handle a catering company," Sasuke said as he glared at his chef. Only someone of Hiro's caliber could get away with what the man did.

"Oh, yes," Hiro said in that tone he used with women. In his kitchen he used a whole other tone, one of command that brooked no disobedience, but now he practically purred to Sakura. "I have the most divine kitchen. Copper pots from France, a cook stove as big as my first apartment. You must come and see it."

"I'd love to," Sakura said eagerly. "Maybe you'd give me a few cooking lessons."

"I will give you anything you want," Hiro said seductively as he raised her hand to kiss the palm.

But at the exact moment that Hiro's lips were to touch Sakura's flesh, Sasuke accidently knocked over Kenji's high chair and the clatter made her jump away. Kenji was frightened by the noise, so he started to scream, and Sakura grabbed him from the floor.

After a moment she had him settled, and she turned back to Sasuke. "So, what so you think about Hiro's opening his own business? I told him you'd have good advice."

When Sasuke just stood there in silence, she looked nervously at Hiro. "Yes, well, I think it's a good idea. Kenji has eaten more of your food in the last day than he has in his whole little life. If you want to do more testing, I can get some other women you can supply baby food to and they'll be your guinea pigs. And we'll all write letters of recommendation for you."

For a moment Sasuke smirked at this idea. Hiro and baby food! The idea was laughable. Hiro was such a snob that he complained about what people wore when they ate his food. "That woman crumbled crackers in my soup," he once said, then refused to ever again cook for her, saying that she wasn't worth his time. And later Sasuke found out he was right: the woman was a gold digger of extraordinary greed.

But now Sasuke could see that Hiro was thinking about Sakura's idea of going into business. Which would mean that he'd lose his chef!

"You don't know how difficult it is cooking for a baby," Sakura was saying. "If you cook a butternut squash, you have enough for a dozen meals and who wants to eat butternut squash for a solid week?"

"I see. It is a problem. I had never tasted baby food from jars until this week. Awful, dreadful stuff. No wonder children hate proper food and prefer living on hamburgers and hot dogs."

"Exactly. So that's why—"

She broke off because Sasuke suddenly stepped between them. "I think we need to get ready to go now, so you'd better leave," he said to Hiro.

"But we were just getting started. I'd like to hear more about this baby food idea. Maybe I could—"

"Maybe you couldn't," Sasuke said as he pulled the chair back so Hiro could stand. So help him, if he lost his chef to this whole fiasco of Naruto's, he was going to—

"For you, my beautiful lady," Hiro was saying, "I will deliver free dinners every night for the next two weeks. And perhaps lunch too."

"Oh, really, I haven't done anything," Sakura said, but she was blushing prettily as Hiro once again reached for her hand to kiss.

But Sasuke stepped between them and in the next moment Hiro was out the door. "I could have stayed in the most expensive hotel in the world for less than what this trip is costing me," Sasuke muttered as he leaned against the door.

"You were awfully rude to him," Sakura said, frowning. "Why?"

When Sasuke could think of nothing to explain his actions, he picked up Kenji and started toward the living room. "I think we should go shopping today," he threw over his shoulder. "Unless you have all your Christmas shopping done already."

"Oh, no, I haven't. I, uh, yes, I'll get ready in a moment," she said, then disappeared into her bedroom.

"Lesson number one, little man," Sasuke said as he lifted Kenji high over his head, "if you want to distract a woman, mention shopping. The worst you'll have to do is spend the day in a mall, but it's better than answering questions you don't want to answer."