Promises Remembered

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Sakura

Six-hundred and twenty-six days into the past

Sweets.

They were all Sakura wanted lately, particularly rakugan. She wondered if it was her son, already demanding them from her. They certainly couldn't be a nutrient related craving. Whatever the cause, she was making them at least once a week. Every time Kakashi found her making them, he would chuckle and dutifully open his mouth to accept whatever colored crane she offered.

She wasn't entirely sure he actually liked them or if he ate them because she made them for him. It made her wonder about why his older self ate them. Did he actually like them or did they just remind him of her and this brief happy time together? He really didn't eat other sweets. Her rakugan were pretty much the only sugar he would accept. Maybe it was all a big circle of nostalgia and he only ate them for her; now because he knew she liked to make them for him because he ate them in the future, and then because he missed her so much.

It made her head hurt.

Either way, she wanted more. At five months pregnant, she was showing quite a bit and found herself bumping into things now and then with her belly. Standing in the kitchen, humming along to the music playing softly behind her, Sakura took extra care not to knock any of the bowls of powder.

"Hmmhmm" her hips swayed in time to the music as she mixed the color into the sugar. Orange this week.

"Hmm-" She thought she heard something. Leaning back and letting her chakra surge, she searched the apartment. Nothing.

Shrugging, she went back to her mixing. The tune was one she liked and without thinking about it, she started singing along—the steps she took as she worked rather than the lyrics. "Mix, mix, mix... scoop. Pour in the mold. Pour in the mold. Presssssss—oh! Oh! Dammit! Kakashi!"

The mold clattered to the floor, orange powder scattering as her sneaking husband darted in for a kiss around her flailing arms. He'd come up behind her, surprising her terribly.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you so badly." He ducked her tea towel attack, holding his hands up. "Here, let me grab the broom, I'll clean this up." He snuck another kiss as he danced around her.

"Tch." Smile slipping through her pout, Sakura gave him one last swat with her towel before crouching to pick up her mold. "I don't know how I didn't notice you. I thought I heard something and let my chakra search the apartment and still—"

She paused, looking at her wooden mold, Kakashi talking as he swept around her. "I suppressed my chakra and might have stayed on the balcony until you retracted yours. I honestly thought you'd notice me, you usually do. Are you feeling alright?"

"I..." She stood, looking down at her mold, holding it out to him. There was now a chip on the corner—a familiar, oddly shaped chip. These weren't just like her mother's kashigata, they were her mother's kashigata. "I think so but... Kakashi look."

He did. "Shit. I'm sorry, Sakura. Are they still usable? I can get you another—"

"No..." Sakura ran her thumb along the chip and laughed softly. "My mother's set had a chip too. Exactly like this one. See? It's a strange shape. She never told me where she got them, I always assumed she'd had them forever. But..." She shook her head in disbelief. "Now that I think about it, she never made rakugan. She pulled these out when I was about twelve and wanted to learn how to make them for..."