The Undesired Second Chance

Chapter 17: Dinner

There weren't enough chairs.

Three chairs, four guests, and the table wasn't even built for five people to comfortably sit around to begin with; at least one person was going to end up with a table leg right smack where their legs were supposed to go. Still, there should technically be enough space.

He did have enough plates, glasses, and silverware. So he had that going for him too, which was nice.

Still not enough chairs, though.

Minato pulled the round table out from the wall, positioning it so that everyone could claim a spot. Then, with a knowing smile, he withdrew a scroll from one of his vest pockets.

"I knew you didn't have enough," he flicked the scroll open, "so I thought I'd go ahead and bring in some from my own kitchen."

There was a poof of white smoke that quickly dissipated to reveal two chairs. Axel—who had, by now, figured that the only option would be grabbing the chair from behind the register in the shop and the desk chair from his bedroom—was incredibly grateful.

"Thank you," he said.

With the chair issue settled, he could turn his attention to the next sticking point: actually cooking dinner for everyone. Since his guests had all arrived quite a bit earlier than he had been expecting, he hadn't even started preparing the food.

Well, mostly. The chicken was thawing in the sink and there was a jar in the cabinet filled with cabbage he had diced up, kneaded with salt, and left to ferment a few days ago. It didn't taste quite like the sauerkraut he was used to, but when he had tested it just this past morning, it was close enough.

"Since you're early," Axel said, moving past the genin to get various ingredients from his fridge, "I still need to make the food."

Minato, whose eagerness was likely the reason they had been early in the first place, looked a little sheepish. "Ah, well... can I help at all?"

The offer had to be considered carefully. It wasn't so much that Minato couldn't cook, but that he really shouldn't; he tended to overdose on spices. With a narrow look—debating for a moment longer—Axel judged that it was probably safe enough to have him peel and cut the potatoes. He directed the ninja to the sack in the pantry, and soon enough one of Minato's kunai was temporarily re-purposed as a kitchen knife to prepare the tubers at the table.

Noticing Axel's somewhat dubious look, Minato scooted a handful of freshly skinned and sliced potatoes to the side of the cutting board and smiled. "Don't worry, it's a new one. Hasn't stabbed anything but vegetables."

Axel decided it was best left at that. As he gathered and set out the rest of what he would need—eggs, flour, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper, and the lemons—he noticed that only one of the three genin was still paying them any attention. Obito had wandered to peek back into the store space they had walked past to get to the kitchen and ogling the various weapons hung on display. The girl, Rin, seemed torn between joining him and dragging him back to the table.

Kakashi was... glaring at him, Axel decided. It was hard to read the kid-ninja's expression when half of his face was behind a mask, but his eyes had a telling edge to them.

Nothing he could really do about that though, so Axel simply moved on.

"Can we help at all?" And there was Rin, having made her choice and dragged Obito over by his sleeve. She was barely tall enough to see over the countertop—standing on tiptoe to get a look at the ingredients.

Schnitzel wasn't hard to prepare and wouldn't take long, but any help is always appreciated. Axel pulled the bowl of thawed chicken from the sink and set them out on a baking sheet.