Gerimis

CHUNIN quarters

Sasuke winced as the kitchen knife sliced through his thumb splitting the skin open. Blood came flowing out of his skin and drenched the onions on the cutting board. Chouji, noticing the accident threw a paper towel at Sasuke while rushing to the stove. He glanced at Sasuke as he minimizes the size of the fire on the stove.

It was Sasuke’s first time cutting onions for cooking and he was already injuring himself. Sasuke deemed the kitchen knife as a dangerous weapon for him, even the katana he wielded the other day was much easier to handle.

Although his thumb was injured, it did not stop his learning session. After cleaning the blood off his thumb he patched it up with a plaster and proceeded to discard the onions he had cut earlier. He continued cutting the rest of the ingredients without accident.

The nutritionist and the teenage soldier were having a private cooking class because Sasuke was tired of being delegated to cashier or waiter when on espionage assignments. He reasoned to himself that if he learned to cook he can be hired as a personal chef or infiltrate a gangster's kitchen when he's older. Plus, the reality of learning to cook was also beneficial in the long run didn't hurt either.

"Here Sasuke, this is how I fry fritters. To ensure that they don't end too deep fried you have to stir it continually in a clockwise movement. Stir them and turn them over when the colour darkens.

"Like this?" Sasuke worked his way with the wok spatula while Chouji monitored.

"Yeah like that. With the way I cook it, it would still be crunchy even until tomorrow morning. You can say goodbye to the cold too salty fritters sold by the roadside.

Sasuke had activated his Sharingan since he did not want to stop and write Chouji's tips down on his notebook. Another benefit of the Sharingan is that it can copy the things you see in front of you and the user will be able to replicate it later. After the fritters turned the desired colour, Chouji turned the stove off and handed a stainless steel food strainer laced with tissue to Sasuke. Sasuke took it and used the ladle to lift the fritters and place them on the strainer. Chouji smiled satisfactorily as Sasuke set the food strainer onto a stainless steel bowl.

Frying the anchovy and onion fritters was the second thing they cooked today. Chouji let Sasuke learn simple recipes before moving onto the more difficult ones. He planned to teach Sasuke learn some basic gravy or soup recipe afterwards. Chouji made a mental note to teach Sasuke more about cutting onion to avoid future accidents.

Sasuke scooped all the empty food containers, spoons and ladle that they had used and placed them in the sink. He proceeded to squirt a dollop of dish washing liquid onto a sponge and proceeded to wash the dishes.

After the fritters cooler down, Chouji fetched two plastic food containers from a cabinet and word them.clean. He placed half of the fritters into one container and the other half into the other container.

"Who are you giving the other half to?"

Sasuke looked at Chouji "Sakura. Kiba thought it was a good idea to give her something as a goodwill gesture since she will be going on a mission tonight."

Chouji smiled at Sasuke, "I never think of you as the gift giving type."

"She did give me shepherd's pie before I went to my overseas' mission last year, and since I haven't given her anything yet, even on her birthday last year, Kiba thought this was a good idea as a return gift."

Chouji gave Sasuke a confused "So you are saying that this is all Kiba's idea. Learning to cook for Sakura?"

"I am cooking for future mission and myself, but yes these are for Sakura."

Sasuke was beginning to be annoyed by Chouji's remarks. What's wrong with cooking for his former teammate? He was often teamed with Sakura and Sai when they were out, she being the medic ninja, him being the brain and Sai being the muscle. They teamed for 12 missions since 3 years ago only having been separated when he turned 15 and the emancipation session started. Thrice out of the 12 times he was injured and the injuries impacted the mission, but these injuries weren't reported as he had turned out well before they finished the mission.

"Well, aren't you keeping any for Kiba?" Chouji asked as Sasuke placed the food containers inside his backpack.

Patting on his backpack he answered Chouji's last question. "This one is for Kiba. I am going out later to get my car from the workshop and Ino is treating me to Asean food later. Thank you for today, i look forward to the next class." With that he waved bye at Chouji and headed to the female's dorm wing.

He waited at the entrance after leaving a message on the Intercom. Sakura came out and smiled at Sasuke.

"So how's the cooking lesson?" Sakura asked noticing the plaster on Sasuke's finger. She commented "Need any healing with that?"

CHUNIN had fused Sakura with an energy source known as Chakra which was a natural energy able to heal human when channelled via a trained healer. Sakura had been planted with small chips and chakra gatherer inside her, by Shizune the lead scientist of ROOT. She was able to heal minor external injuries in the battlefield without medication and also major injuries, but the injured human must be conscious throughout the ordeal to ensure that the healing is successful.

Sasuke shook his head "No, it's just a superficial wound. I am not doing anything major these few days so no need to worry."

He unzipped his backpack and handed a food container to Sakura "This should tell you about how my cooking class went. I wish you well with the trip."

Sakura did not expect Sasuke to give her something like that. She thought Sasuke was meeting her to give her advice on her mission or something else since they had a working relationship since 3 years ago. Smiling broadly she took the container from Sasuke.

Sasuke being Sasuke cut the meeting short. "Send my regards to Itachi should you meet him there?"

Sakura nodded while watching Sasuke disappeared into the aisle leading to the male's dorm wing.

She was surprised at this gesture. Sasuke was never the giving type and often only talked to her when needed. Is this some sort of impact from the movie watching he pursued, or something he experienced when he was out on the world doing what community normally does? Sakura opened the container and smelled the delicious fritters inside and walked back to her room.

It's funny how much time slows down when you barely have nothing to do, in the other hand no one can deny that time flies like a Shinkansen when you are doing so many things. Blink, blink blink and look at the time it's already 4.30 pm It's only been 35 days since Iruka left, and Naruko counted the days since there weren't much to do around the cinema. Last night Iruka told her about the brawl among some unruly students at the college. He was almost hit in the face when he came to broke the fight which happened at a hostel barbecue party. Luckily it did not turn into a mob fight as the one who started it was a stranger who came there in a drunken state and the hostel has a strict rule about bringing alcohol. Nevertheless she was still afraid for Iruka since she had never seen Iruka fight before, but Iruka said he had enough skill in him to dodge and attack should the need be.

The cinema was quiet as ever on a Tuesday and it was only 10.00 am. But the cashier's are all open and ready for operation as some last minute trainees recruited over the weekend, started learning how to manage the counters. Kakashi's step brother is opening a cinema in the next town and had recruited a few new managers and had them training at the cinema, so for the past 3 weeks Naruko had all her tasks taken over by the trainees. On the first week, Naruko was elated as she showed the future managers how things were done. But after a week there weren't much things to teach about, they were already expert at operating the cash registers, learning about the standard of procedures for opening and closing the counter, how to serve customers and other operational matters. By the second week the first batch of management trainee were teaching the second batch trainees. Kakashi had asked the present employees to give way to the trainees and just loiter around the office to monitor the newbies.

Naruko was sitting in the staff pantry with a bunch of stapled recycled paper, drawing circles on the plain side of them. The pantry has a table for four person but since it's not break time, no one was here. As Naruko filled half of the A4 paper with swirls and doodles her Day Manager / Morning Manager walked in.

"Bored isn't it? They'll be gone next week so don't die yet," the woman wearing a name tag with the name Konan spoke to Naruko. She opened the fridge for a package of milk bearing her name on it.

"I won't die soon, I have not learned how to fry ramen without anything getting burnt yet," Naruko replied with a wide smile.

Konan snorted and bent down to look at Naruko's doodle. "What's that squiggly thing in a circle?"

Tilting her head ar Konan, Naruko answered, "Oh, that's hot piping ramen in a bowl."

Then in came a trainee wanting to speak to Konan, "Kakashi wants to speak to you on the phone."

"Ok, thanks. That man better come to work today or hire another Night Manager. I can't ask Yahiko and Konan to hire a session musician each time I have to work the night shift" as she puffed her way trailing behind the trainee, exiting the pantry.

Naruko glanced at her watch, a cute generic brand digital watch with a fox on the two hands. "It's 5.00 already." She packed her things and moved herself to the locker room for some clothes change to go back home.

Walking towards the staff exit, Naruko with hands in her pocket looked down at her orange and black sneakers, noting how much the colours clashed against the dark carpeting which was a mishmash of black, purple, red shapes with icons of popcorns and showreels scattered all over.

As she walked down the stairs out of the staff exit and into the shopping complex she remembered that Iruka had wanted to buy her a belated birthday gift and asked her to take a look at the nearby jewellery store. Feeling giddy she skipped to the lift and joined three burly man waiting for the lift.

The kiss she forced on Iruka came into her mind.

Iruka put his hands under her elbows and got up to his knees. With his hands under her bent arms, he guided her by the elbows so that they were standing facing each other.

They were now standing and Iruka brushed stray hairs from Naruko's face. He cupped her face with his right hand kissed her forehead. Naruko was blushing hard but her heartbeats were not as hurried as she expected them to be. She was sure that she would feel something after the kiss, but…

"I know that they have been nudging us towards something more than us being friends, Naruko. But that's not happening now I see. i wasn't expecting anything either.

"Iruka," she said softly. "Please tell me how to live on my own terms when all my life I have always been about taking care of others, being there for someone? Tell me?"

"You will learn soon. You are just 16, I was 16 and I survived. You can too. Just learn to listen to your heart and not what other people say what you should do?"

Iruka half hugged her and guided her to the sofa bed. They sat down. Iruka let go of Naruko and let his hand fall on his knees. They both sat in silence letting the new reality set in.

Naruko thought about the kiss, it set nothing to her heart. No fire, no nothing. She had never had any crush on anyone, much less being in love with someone, so when the kiss made no spark in her heart she became afraid.

"So this means Chiyo and Anko will continue their match making game with you?"

Iruka looked at her now completely forgetting the kiss i seems. He was channel surfing the tv.

"Looks like it."

"Aren't you afraid of her?"

"She is miles away, I'll deal with her later."

Naruko instantly relaxed and lean back on the couch. She spoke in a curious tone, "I hope you won't be pressing chargers at me for molesting you."

Iruka smiled "Don't be silly, you were curious. I was like you once, young, hormonal, with an itch to scratch. But… I never kissed a girl before, so I am … surprised."

"What Irukaaaa?"

The lift dinged open and Naruko let the burly guys exit first as she tailed them from the back. The jewellery store was right around the corner as she hopped towards. She peered at the white gold display and noted a sign saying that the store was offering rings at half the price. She made a mental note to ask the salesperson in charge about it later, first she will do some window shopping first. She walked carefully into the store and saw the burly men looking around in the store. Suddenly she felt a muscled arm around her neck and the next millisecond she was jerked backwards into a hard object, not a wall but a man. The man cocked a gun onto her head and screamed.

"Give all your gold to them or she dies!"

Shit. What the hell is this?