Apron
In which cherry blossoms are familiar and Uchiha history can be found woven into all the fabrics of their household.
A/N: Hi everyone :) sorry for my own lack of posts, but Iâm so excited to finally share this! My dear friend and the talented artist ALISS @alisstairsâ and I have been working on this project for a long time and weâre posting this part as a Valentineâs Day treat!! Our twitters are plumbIossoms and a_lisstairs. Please enjoy and look out for the rest of the project when itâs ready to be posted! Please do not repost any of this anywhere.
Sakura walked through the front door and was immediately greeted by a delicious scent and soft sounds coming from the kitchen â which meant her husband was cooking. The fact that Sasuke was both home early from a mission and cooking dinner was enough to put her in a good mood, so when she saw him standing over the stove, she couldnât help but break into a big smile.Â
âWhyâd you get an apron?â Sakura asked when she came up right behind him to peek at what he had set to boil. Sasuke jerked his chin towards his lone arm, âIt can get a little messy with just this. I actually bought this for you while I was getting groceries, but I needed it myself for today.â
When Sakura walked in, Sasukeâs back was to her, so she only noticed the strings knotted around his waist that showed he was wearing an apron. Only when he turned around to kiss her in greeting did she realize the apron was pale pink in color and covered in a cherry blossom print. How cute.
âAnd when were you planning on telling me about this gift?â she asked with the same big smile she wore when she walked in.
âNever. Itâs fine if you donât use it and we just eat out all the time.â Sasuke honestly enjoyed his wifeâs cooking, but it was always fun to tease her when everyone else claimed she was the worst. Saiâs pale skin turned a shade of sickly green anytime someone mentioned Sakuraâs soldier pills.
Sakura rolled her eyes. Fine, he could just make his own bento next time!Â
âSarada is still with my parents?â she queried instead. âYes, I figured your mom would refuse to give her up if I attempted picking her up early. We can get her tomorrow morning?â âThat sounds good. I only dropped her off this afternoon, so sheâll be fine for a little longer, but Iâll definitely be glad to have her back here. Sasuke-kun, arenât you tired from your mission? Why didnât you want to just get take-out or something?â Sasukeâs face fell almost imperceptibly, âYou werenât home when I got back. I wasnât injured so I couldnât bother you at the hospital. The house was too quiet without Sarada and I didnât really have anything else to do.â He said it plainly, but the explanation made Sakuraâs heart hurt a little. Coming home to an empty house was a certain kind of lonely feeling. The only downside of Sasuke returning early was that she hadnât been there to greet him right away.Â
âOkay,â she smiled gently up at him, hoping to draw him away from any dark thoughts, âIâm glad youâre making something, Iâm starving.â Sasuke nodded, but when his eyes narrowed soon after, Sakura already knew what he was thinking. âYes, I ate lunch at the hospital. I brought the last of some leftovers.â He nodded again, satisfied.
Sakura moved away from his side to give him some space and started setting the table. âYou know, this feels a little like before we had Sarada. Just me and you.âÂ
âExcept weâre not roasting fish over a fire in the middle of nowhere,â Sasuke deadpanned.Â
âHey! You canât deny that we had some good meals on the road. Well, I think cooking them was usually more fun than eating them because we never knew how they would turn out,â Sakura reminisced. And she was constantly impressed by Sasukeâs mastery of fire style; every single time he produced the perfect flame for their food. On her birthday, he even humored her and produced a baby flame for a candle they picked up in a random village.
They were able to find some familiar foods during their travels, but there were plenty of new flavors too. Naturally, some were hits, some were misses. The open air markets from the various nations always had something new to offer.Â
But having access to a kitchen inside a home was definitely a perk of returning to the village. For Sasuke, Konoha was a place where his home happened to be, and for Sakura, Konoha was always going to be home. Even if they couldnât control the chaos outside the village walls, they at least had a warm kitchen to always return to.Â
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A few days later, Sasuke returned home from the market with another apron, this one specifically for him: it was larger and free of (a specific pink) decoration. He hadnât noticed how messy they could get while cooking and feeding Sarada until he did laundry recently. He always managed to get sauce splattered on his pants while cooking. Sarada was normally a good eater, but smashed peas often ended up on his shirt after dinner. Even on the darker fabrics he preferred, some stains just wouldnât come out.Â
âOh, but itâs so plain. At least let me sew the clan symbol on it?â Sakura rubbed the thick material of the apron between her fingers. It was so much longer than hers, Sasuke is so tall! Should she make a pocket? How big should the fan be? Should she sew his name on it too?Â
âSakura the food is burning!â Sasuke was taking off his shoes and playing with Sarada by the door while Sakura examined the apron, so neither of them noticed the rising smoke until it was too late. Sakura rushed back to the stove to turn down the heat, but the damage had been done. Their meal was torched. Toasted. Singed. Seared. Charred. Fire style jutsu-ed. âThatâs what I get for trying to speed up the process by using high heat,â Sakura sighed. Work had been long and taxing, she really didnât want to spend more time chopping vegetables, but dinner wasnât going to cook itself.Â
But thankfully, Sasuke was there to save the day (as he so often did). She felt his large, warm hand come to rest on the small of her back and at first she thought he was just trying to comfort her. But then his fingers fiddled around behind her and undid her apronâs knot. âItâs my fault, I shouldnât have distracted you,â he said mirthfully. âIâll fix it or just make something else. Go sit.âÂ
Sakura meekly shuffled away, grabbing Sarada to play on the couch. She wondered how she got so lucky.Â
After stealing several peeks at Sasukeâs broad back in the kitchen, Sakura carried Sarada over to him. âShe wants to know if she can help,â Sakura held Sarada up and covered her own face. Sarada squirmed and babbled in her hands, making Sasuke smile. She would be talking, as in actually able to articulate her own sentences, soon enough.
âShe can be our official taste tester.â He wasnât going to let Sakura worry about dinner, but he also could never deny her attempts at having a little fun. He took a small spoonful of broth and blew on it until it had cooled considerably. He brought the spoon to Saradaâs mouth and guided it in.
She spit half of it up onto her white bib, but giggled loudly afterwards. âI think that means she likes it?â
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âMom, can I borrow your apron? I wanted to make ChoCho something for her birthday, itâs tomorrow,â Sarada called out from the kitchen where she was poking around and gathering ingredients for a cake. She had only ever made one with the help of her mother, but it couldnât be that hard, right?
Sakura came in from the living room, âOh, sure! It might be a little big on you though. We should just get you your own, even your dad has one.â
The thought of her father wearing an apron covered in tomatoes made Sarada freeze. Papa? Has his own apron?Â
âWell, he used to use mine, but then we werenât able to cook at the same time. His would definitely be too big for you.â Sakura opened up a cabinet and pulled out her well-loved cherry blossom apron, plus a larger, blue apron with the Uchiha symbol in the center. It would definitely be too big on Sarada.
But Sarada always missed her father, so she asked shyly, âCan I wear dadâs? Iâll probably get really messy, so I need it to cover all of my clothes.â Sakura smiled at her and helped her put it on. Even though she tied the strings extra tight, Sarada was still swimming in the blue fabric. It didnât feel wrong, though.Â
As she went along with baking the cake, she always made sure to avoid wiping her hands on the clan symbol. After learning about her familyâs history, she had a certain reverence for the Uchiha. The fan represented her ancestors, her family past and present, and as silly as it was, she didnât want to dirty it. When she pulled the finished cake out of the oven, she noticed the intense heat didnât bother her as much now that she had become more proficient in fire style.Â
After frosting the cake with a simple birthday message, Sarada finally cleaned up, satisfied with her work. She was reluctant to take the apron off and part with another piece of her father. She wondered what kind of food he made when he wore this apron. Were there any Uchiha family recipes he could share? Maybe next time he was home, Sarada could make him something too
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A/N: Like I said, this is just one part to a larger project, we will post the full thing soon enough but weâve been working hard on it for a while. And again do not repost! Show Aliss some love on her accounts pwease she is the best <3 and happy Valentineâs Day!!
















