I'm sorry, Anon, for taking a long time, but here you go! I hope you'll enjoy this ❣️
Sugar and Spice (Part 1/?)
Rating: General
Characters: Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sarada
Summary: When Sakura experiments something new, she always has her daughter's back.
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Sakura turned down the gas on her stove as she started looking for her mobile. After pushing away everything present in her sight, she finally managed to find the device lying under the chopping board. She unlocked it, scrolling through her contacts, just to stop when she found her best friend's name on the list. Unsure of what to do, she eyed the contents of her pan. She definitely didn't like the texture of the meat she had been frying.
If I call Ino Pig, I’m surely going to regret this later.
She bit her bottom lip, trying to guess all the possible ways her best friend would insult her if she asked for her help to cook beef teriyaki.
Sakura shook her head, kicking the idea out. Hinata was an angel, and she would help without ridiculing her like Ino. With that thought, she tapped the call button.
She balanced her phone on her shoulder, while she held a piece of meat between her saibashi, unsure if it needed more frying or not.
Hinata, please pick up!
There was a particular step she had messed up the last time. She needed some guidance, maybe some expert advice, or maybe some helping hands to do the thing perfectly this time.
She realised luck wasn't on her side that day when the ringing sound from the other side of the phone died. Ticking off both Ino and Hinata from the list, she decided she would have to rely on her last resort when the time came.
But before that, the meat needed attention. She didn't want it to get charred.
She peered from the kitchen to find her darling husband and her sweet daughter talking with each other. With a contented smile on her face, she searched for the video that had tempted her to cook this recipe.
Shannaroo! Learning a basic dish from a tutorial is so embarrassing, she whined.
When it came to memorization, Sakura had always excelled. It was an advantage she thought she always had. Without it, it would have been impossible for her to digest the countless fat books covering the secrets of medical ninjutsu. Her hands also held great precision, whether it was to crush bones or to heal them. But when it came to cooking, she often found herself at the end of her wits.
Her hands moved in sync while her eyes were glued to the screen. She mixed everything in proportion as described in the video to make the teriyaki sauce.
Two tablespoons of sugar in the mixture of sake, mirin and soy sauce, she noted mentally, hoping she wouldn’t forget the ingredients next time. She poured the sauce into the pan as instructed in the video as she brought it to a boil to thicken it.
She scrunched her nose, looking at the dark-coloured sauce. It didn't look like it had the previous time she had made it.
It kind of looks dull, she thought.
But it's a sauce, not a face, Sakura chided herself.
She placed the meat inside the boiling sauce, pouting. Cooking was never too hard for her, but certainly cooking something for Sasuke-kun still made her nervous.
"Sarada, can you come here for a second?"
Sarada padded into the kitchen towards her mother. "Woah! It smells nice."
"You think so?" Sakura asked her nervously, a bead of sweat rolling from her forehead.
Sarada hummed her approval, watching as Sakura coated the meat with the teriyaki sauce.
“Can you bring me a plate?” Sakura asked Sarada.
Sarada nodded and dashed towards the rack to bring her a nice plate to serve the dish.
When she came back, she found her mother eyeing the teriyaki beef, half confused and half scared.
"What is it, Mama?"
They had been experimenting with this particular dish for months, if Sarada remembered clearly. All their effort in trying out new recipes was for her father. God knew what Sasuke ate during his missions, so Sakura had decided to treat Sasuke with new dishes when he would come back.
"Well.. umm…" Although Sakura felt a little guilty about asking Sarada, Sarada was her last resort.
“Can you slice the beef into pieces?” She moved her arms in the air, mimicking the act.
Sarada raised an eyebrow.
The look Sarada gave her told Sakura she wouldn’t, but she rambled anyway, “Last time the pieces didn't turn out evenly when I cut them, remember?"
If Sakura had said that she had torn the meat into shreds, she wouldn’t have exaggerated.
"No." Sarada deadpanned.
“Sarada, please!” Sakura whined, green eyes pleading for help.
Yep, sometimes Uchiha Sakura had to beg her sweet daughter, and Sarada relished every bit of teasing the hell out of her mother.
"Just slice them like you make an incision during surgery."
Sakura threw a look of disbelief towards her daughter, "What did this have to do with— "
Sarada shrugged, “What difference would it make anyway? It tasted good the previous time, and it will taste good this time too.”
“A LOT! And how do you know this turned good without even tasting it?” Sakura argued, keeping the saibashi aside, hands on her hips.
Sarada sighed, “Ne Mama, have some confidence in yourself. It’s —”
“Hey — did you just compare surgery with cooking? Cutting meat and cutting a patient out is totally different, Shannaroo.”
Sakura had completely forgotten to turn off the stove. The drifting smell of cooking meat was enough to distract them both from their banter.
Sakura had gone too far and researched so much that Sarada had to remind her, ‘Calm down! Your patient isn’t dying here,’ but whatever her mother was doing right now confirmed that today she had lost her mind. She wondered if there was an alarm that got triggered every time her father was around.
"How many years have you guys been married?" Sarada asked. She knew, but she asked to prove a point.
Sakura raised her brow as she inspected the meat and answered, "Fifteen."
Lucky for her, the sauce didn't dry up.
"Fifteen years," Sarada punctuated her words, hoping she made her point.
And she did. Sakura blushed as she placed the sauce soaked beef on the chopping board.
Sakura knew it was silly. After fifteen years together in marriage, they had accepted each other’s best and worst. Sasuke knew her hands could bring people from the doorstep of death, but those hands were a little unpolished when it came to cooking. Her blush deepened when she remembered she had burnt the fish the first time she had cooked for Sasuke to impress him. Although there was no need to impress him now, the little words of appreciation that rolled off of his tongue had always motivated her to improve.
Holding the knife in her hand, she glanced towards Sarada.
Sarada encouraged her with an energetic nod, blurting out, "Go, slice it, Mama."
Sakura giggled at her daughter's comment and angled her knife at a slant over the meat.
Sarada gave her a ‘See, I knew you could do it’ look when Sakura beamed brightly.
The Uchiha matriarch congratulated herself on her feat. Coming back early from the hospital and going through all the trouble to cook beef teriyaki was worth it.
When Sakura again peered from the kitchen, she caught Sasuke smiling at something that Sarada was saying while she placed the bowl of miso soup on the table. Dinners like that were rare for them. To see a sight like this, Sakura would go through horrors of trying new recipes again and again.
Yes, totally worth it.
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Here's some beef teriyaki for everyone. Enjoy!
PS- It's just to show why I chose beef teriyaki. xD. It does look like that, Hmph! 🤷🏻♀️
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