Dreams of the Past

The Flying Raijin

A/N Oh my gosh I have been dying to post this one since I wrote it. It is one of my favorites. 

Chapter 10

The Flying Raijin

The sound of men laughing together filled the house, bringing a smile to Sakura's lips from where she stood over crackling oil in the kitchen. Ume and Kizashi were joining them for dinner and her father had brought a few bottles of saké. Currently, he was entertaining his hosts with rice wine and a story about one of the local magistrates. Sakura was unsure of the story's authenticity, but Kizashi had apparently always been quite the story teller.

Ume, who positively adored Kakashi-kun, was helping them with the meal. She had been unsurprised to discover how much he liked learning new things, even if it had nothing to do with improving his shinobi skills. Earlier that afternoon, he had eagerly led Sakura around the market, choosing vegetables, shrimp and squid for the tempura, making sure to get extra eggplant. He also seemed to enjoy her grandmother's doting attention, his mask unable to hide the proud grin as she praised his knife work.

"Perfect, Kakashi-kun. I had no idea that skill with a kunai translated so well to the kitchen. Now, the eggplant has a lot of water in it, so in order to make sure it fries properly, you should slice half of each piece several times again like a fan, see?"

He nodded and set to work on his stack of eggplant, not distracted by Ume's affectionate ruffle of his hair. Chuckling to herself, Sakura carefully dropped the squash blossoms she'd just dredged in batter into the oil, counting the seconds in her head and scooping them out and dropping them with the others.

"Those look good." Kakashi came up beside her, leaning in close to pluck one of the fried flowers up from the paper towel.

"Wait! They're—" He hissed, almost dropping the thing, catching it in his other hand. "Hot..."

"Of course they are." He ducked so that his face was hidden beside her head, quickly tugging his mask down and popping it in his mouth. Humming as he crunched, his eyes met hers, swimming with a warm mirth that set girlish butterflies loose in her stomach. "Perfect."

It was a fool's errand attempting to hide her blush. She could only hope he assumed it was brought on by the heat of the frying oil, not her body reacting to him. "Um... Good, good."

He glanced around her to observe Kakashi-kun's growing pile of sliced eggplant, his entire body far too close to hers. His hand grazed the small of her back and she had to physically bite back a gasp. Your grandmother is watching. You're married, remember? Get a hold of yourself, Sakura! It's not like he grabbed your ass!

She almost wished he had.

"Here, Ayame. Do these next." He handed her two slices of eggplant.

Blinking away images of him groping her through her skirt, she focused on the vegetables two inches from her face. "Tch. Greedy. Go and wait until we're done."

His head tipped to the side, his shaggy hair falling across his face. Gods, he has to be aware of how damn charming that is. "Please? They're not both for me, one's for the kid."

On her other side, the kid tore his eyes away from his cutting board. "I can wait, Me-chan." His childish voice was laced with condescension, causing Kakashi to snort and mutter something about 'kiss asses,' earning himself a swat.

"You leave him alone, Karasu-san." Ume brandished her towel at him, amusement dancing all over her face despite the chastising words. "Kakashi-kun is a perfectly sweet young man with lovely manners." Sakura started to laugh, but her grandmother laid a hand on her shoulder. "Fry the eggplant for your husband, dear."