This choice: The client makes the group breakfast, but Sakura "isn't hungry"... • Go Back...Chapter #7Field of Weeds. by: Ëtalfni   "You must be the kind ninjas who are supposed to help us with setting up shop." Smiled the man, he tipped his driver's cap. "How do you do?"
Sasuke and Naruto gave the man a very displeased look, clearly not in the mood for pleasantries. Deciding to be friendly, least they'd all be unpleasant for the rest of the day to each other, Sakura answered the porky man's greeting.
"Yes, good morning mister...Uh..."
"Inshouku. Chef Inshouku." Smiled the man, he gestured to the girl behind him. "And this is my daughter, Shirayuri"
Shirayuri bowed, lifting her rich purple skirt up in the process. Sakura noticed a pair of purple wrist cuffs around her arms, but thought nothing of them. "How do you do?"
"What's your name, miss? And how about the two grumpy ones behind you?"
"Sakura Haruno. And these are my teammates Naruto and Sasuke."
"Charmed, well now that introductions are settled, how about some breakfast?"
Sakura blinked slightly. "Pardon?"
Inshouku laughed slightly. "Come now, surely you can't hope to work on an empty stomach. There's much to be done today and I'm not a chef for nothing. Call it a thank you."
"But we're not-"
However, a rumbling roar of stomachs interrupted Sakura's plea. Her teammates all winced in hunger. She tried pushing in her own in a feeble attempt to make it shut up.
"Your empty bellies say otherwise. Come, I can wipe up a quick something in a jiffy. I believe the kitchen was said to be in tact by the time of our arrival..."
And with that he turned to leave for the building, Shirayuri, Naruto, and Sasuke all followed him holding their stomach in eager anticipation. Sakura reached out to stop them but there was nothing she could do. She slumped and reluctantly followed them into the kitchen. Temptation was the biggest enemy of a diet.
~
They stepped into the empty restaurant and headed for the kitchen, as they went Chef Inshouku pointed out all the things that needed to be done. The boy didn't appear to be listening though.
"Now, as you can see we haven't quite set up shop yet. There are tables and chairs to be moved in from the van. I'll leave the heavy lifting work to the boys, for now. After that they'll need to install all the windows on the first floor, then there's cleaning..."
"Uh, Mr. Inshouku. What do you want me to do?" Asked Sakura.
He stopped at the kitchen door. "Oh, I have a big job for you and Shirayuri to do."
Opening the door, he pointed at the empty window stills. Outside behind the restaurant was a massive field of nothing but weeds and roots, cluttering up every single corner of the acre long yard. "We need to clear out that entire field of weeds."
Sakura could already feel her back killing her. "Ahh..."
"I don't expect you finish today, just try to make a sizable dent in it. Anyway." He started up the grill. "Who wants bacon?"
"Me!" Shouted Naruto, Sasuke, and Shirayuri at once.
The chef noticed Sakura hadn't said anything. "What about you, Sakura?"
She bit her lip. "I'm not hungry."
Her growling stomach spoke a different opinion. Naruto gave Sakura a concerned look, as did Shirayuri. Inshouku eyed her once but shrugged, focusing on the slices of meat sizzling in the pan.
"Suit yourself then. If you'd like, you can get started on clearing the field."
"Thank you, sir."
~
Groaning, Sakura stepped out into the field. The bright din of the early morning light forced her to squint slightly just to see beyond five feet in front of her. She was suddenly very thankful that Chef Inshouku didn't expect her to finish clearing the fields by the end of the day. The brown gnarled weeds went up to her waist, and that was at the lowest places. Some were even taller then her. Disgusting, similar, and tiresome weeds all around her.
Sighing, Sakura decided to get to work. Staring into space wasn't going to make the job go any faster. She reached for the first ugly stem and yanked real hard. The roots ran real deep into the ground, it took several forceful tugs to pull it straight out of the ground, she landed right on her butt hard with the weed in her hand.
"Oww..." She muttered, rubbing her sore bottom. This was going to take awhile.
As she tried to pull herself to her feet, something weird happened. She felt really dizzy, like she had been flipped around in circles. She caught herself as her legs gave way and shook in her head in confusion. She stood there holding her knees for a few brief minutes.
"Gah...What's wrong with me...?"
Had it been sleep deprivation? No, she had gone sleepless nights before and never had something like this happen to her. Her stomach, which was growling furiously with her, wasn't helping the problem at all. And with the strain of the jutsu...
"You need to pull them out by the roots." Said a female voice behind her.
Shirayuri was standing behind her, arms crossed with a look of wild amusement like she had been watching Sakura the whole time.
"Weeds are a lot like problems. You need to take them out by the roots."
Sakura gave a forced grin back. "Oh? Thanks for the tip."
But then Sakura winced again as another wave of hungry stomach growls overcame her. Shirayuri frowned, noticing the pink haired ninja's discomfort as she doubled over.
"You're dieting aren't you?"
"Is it that obvious?"
"Something like that, I had been on a lot of them myself. You should really eat something if you're going to be pulling weeds all day."
"You sound like my mom." Replied Sakura, brushing the dirt from her dress. "I'll be fine though."
Shirayuri held up a bag and tossed it to Sakura who looked at it in confusion. "What's this?"
"Rice cakes. Relax, they're non-fat. It's basically like eating celery." She gave a big smile. "I used to eat them all the time when I had my hunger pains."
Sakura opened the bag, inside were little patty shaped bits of food. She wondered if she could even call them food, they sort of looked like packaging peanuts. Taking one out she sniffed it. Odorless. She took a bite.
"...Tastes like paper."
Shirayuri laughed. "Yes, I think so too. You go on ahead and eat, I'll start working."
Though she didn't admit it, Sakura was extremely grateful for the food. Even the tiny cardboard tasting bite she took had soothed the savage growls of her stomach in an instant. She watched with mild interest as Shirayuri proceeded to pick the weeds from the fields, she was doing it with much more ease than Sakura had. The pulled weeds were neatly laid in a pile next to her.
"So, you went on diets too?" Asked Sakura, attempting to strike up a conversation.
"Several, all failed."
"Heh, that sounds a lot like me."
Shirayuri turned around, giving Sakura a surprised look. "Really now? You sure don't look like you need the diet."
Sakura mentally cursed herself. Of course it would look like she didn't need the diet, she had the jutsu. "Well...It's...Uh...It's complicated."
The pudgy girl just gave a warm smile, not revealing if she bought Sakura's clumsy excuse or not. The sun reflected brightly in the strands of her hair almost giving her an angelic appearance. Sakura felt safe around her for some reason. She wrapped up the bag of rice cakes; she had finished only half of it but at least her stomach had something besides itself to eat away at.
"Anyway...I'll just...Uh...Start helping."
She reached out for the nearest weeds but Shirayuri stopped her.
"Oh, don't pull those ones!"
"What? Why?"
"Because you should let them grow, they aren't ready to be plucked yet."
Sakura furrowed her brow. "But your father said to pull all the weeds."
"Don't worry about it, I'll talk to him about it. Here start over by me."
Shrugging, Sakura obeyed making sure to grab the weeds by the root this time. A few moments of speechless labor passed until Shirayuri interrupted the silence.
"Sakura's a very pretty name."
"Huh?"
"Your name. You're named after the sakura flower right?"
"Because of my hair color. Pink."
"Yes, your hair is very beautiful. You're very beautiful."
Sakura blushed slightly. "Thanks...You are too."
"We're both like flowers. My father named me after the word for a lily, after when mom died. He told me I was his flower, so he wanted to give me a beautiful name."
Sakura didn't really know how to respond to the girl's almost melancholy speech. She glanced over and saw that Shirayuri was still smiling to herself.
"It's a little ironic that two flowers like us have to work in a field of weeds. Don't you think?" She asked.
"I guess..." Replied Sakura.
There wasn't much time for conversation after that. Sakura had to focus on working, though she had food in her stomach now the pains were slowly returning. Silence filled the air as the two worked for hours, diligently under the beating sun. The pile of weeds steadily grew into a mountain.
Sakura stopped for a moment and wiped the sweat from her brow. At least she was getting a good workout from this. Then, someone tapped her on the shoulder...   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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