Chapter 35: Onii-chan
"Uncle, who are you?"
Naruto held the plate of grilled meat up high in one hand and glared.
"Yeah, yeah! We're eating our food, old man — what's it to you?"
"ARF!"
Kiba, being exactly Naruto's breed of energy, absolutely refused to back down. And with so many of them on one side against Asuma's three — yeah, this matchup clearly favored his team.
Uncle? UNCLE?
A vein throbbed visibly on Asuma's forehead.
I'm twenty-five years old, you little gremlins!
He had to admit he looked a little older than his age. But uncle felt excessive.
"Huh—?"
"Senpai Kakashi?"
Sakura had immediately spotted the dead-fish-eyed man seated behind Asuma.
Oh. She knows him. This just got a lot easier, Asuma thought with visible relief.
"Heh, heh — Sakura. Fancy running into you here."
If Kakashi could have arranged it, he would have kept a solid hundred-meter buffer between himself and this pink-haired kid at all times. He had a very strong instinct that anyone who got tangled up with this girl ended up in Trouble with a capital T.
He scratched the back of his head and offered her a strained little wave.
"Naruto. Apologize. Honestly — you can't even eat dinner without causing a scene."
Sakura turned her gaze on her blonde classmate.
"Tch, fine. My bad, sorry or whatever."
Naruto glanced at Sakura, then muttered the most half-hearted apology ever recorded toward Asuma.
"It's fine, it's fine. You're kids."
Asuma reached over and ruffled Kiba's hair — since Kiba was the closest.
"Just remember — I'm twenty-five. I'm not an uncle. Call me Big Brother!"
"Huh?"
Ino stared at him with unconcealed astonishment.
"Can't tell at all."
"Yeah, can't tell at all. The lady behind you, though, looks like she's only twenty!" Chōji added around a mouthful of meat, the words a little muffled.
At the compliment, the corner of Kurenai's mouth turned up ever so slightly.
She was the same age as Kakashi and Asuma, and — what woman didn't enjoy hearing she looked younger than she was? This chubby little one was clearly an honest kid.
"Asuma. You're a grown man. Why are you seriously bickering with a pack of kids?"
Kurenai decided it was time to intervene.
Asuma shot her a tortured look, then turned back to Sakura's gang and spoke in his best cajoling voice.
"...If you call me Big Brother, I'll pay your tab."
Kurenai gave him a distinctly unimpressed side-eye.
Don't teach children how to lie, you idiot.
Sakura and company looked at each other. In that singular, crystalline moment, their minds synchronized perfectly, and in a single joyful chorus, they shouted in unison:
"Onii-chan!"
That one word hit Asuma like a spring breeze. A grin stretched so wide across his face that every laugh line on it showed up for roll call.
THIS is the future of Konoha. THIS is the precious jewel I came home to protect—
He was damn near moved to tears.
Meanwhile — Kiba was already flinging open the door to the private room and calling out down the hall.
"Miss! Waitress! Bring fifty more plates of yakiniku! Big Brother next door is paying!"
By the time Asuma had drained his entire wallet, he turned a silently pleading look toward Kakashi.
Kakashi sighed, reached into his own pocket with genuine sympathy, and peeled off a few bills to cover the last of the damage.
"These kids can really pack it away..."
Asuma sighed as they left the restaurant. Kurenai had already excused herself and gone ahead. It was just him and Kakashi now.
The sun was sliding slowly toward the horizon.
Asuma pulled a cigarette from his pocket, stuck it between his lips, and thumbed his lighter. A click, a small flame, and the end of the cigarette glowed orange.
He took a long drag and exhaled a plume of pale-blue smoke into the evening air. The nicotine did its quiet work on his mood.
"That pink-haired girl just now."
Kakashi spoke up out of nowhere.
"Hm? What about her?"
Asuma thought back. Right — the quiet one.
"These last two years — every major change in the country? She was the hand behind it."
Asuma froze mid-step.
That kid... she can't be more than ten years old, can she?
Kakashi glanced at him and continued.
"That kid is already a chūnin."
A ten-year-old chūnin.
A slight smile tugged at the corner of Asuma's mouth.
"Ah. So — a prodigy."
"Strictly speaking, a prodigy who works."
Kakashi corrected him.
He wasn't exactly eager to associate with Sakura, but he couldn't deny how hard she worked. Over the last two years, because they'd had to clean up a steady stream of unscrupulous merchants trying to exploit the grain price situation, Kakashi had pulled bodyguard duty for her more times than he could count.
He had seen her pace of effort up close. On some days, he'd been her sparring partner.
"Huh..."
Asuma pulled hard on his cigarette and exhaled a cloud.
"From what I saw today — that girl seems to be the one that whole pack of kids revolves around."
Kakashi didn't answer. He just gazed out toward the last sliver of sunset with a look that was a little too thoughtful to be casual.
No one could have said what he was thinking.
"Mom, I'm home!"
Sakura, having parted ways with Naruto and Ino, arrived home and — as always — the very first thing she did was kick her shoes off in two random directions and yell for her mother.
"Line those shoes UP!"
Mebuki hadn't even come into view yet. She just knew.
"Haaai~~"
Sakura glanced down at her own crookedly scattered shoes, sighed, and deposited them neatly in the shoe rack.
"Don't bother cooking for me! I already ate out!"
A vein popped on Mebuki's forehead.
"Couldn't you have told me earlier? I already made you dinner!"
Mebuki appeared around the corner in her apron, spatula in hand, giving Sakura the full maternal glare.
"Then save it, Mom. I'll have it as a late-night snack."
Sakura pulled a carefree little face at her and bolted for her bedroom like the wind.
"That child..."
Mebuki watched her daughter's retreating back in exasperation.
Is this the rebellious phase already? She used to be so cute when she was little...
Back in her room, Sakura flicked on the light and pulled a scroll on medical ninjutsu out of her desk drawer.
At this point, aside from the Yin Seal, she had absorbed most of the knowledge that belonged to that Sakura — the Sakura of the Fourth Shinobi World War. Essentially, all she needed to do was keep growing, keep training, and by about age twelve her chakra reserves would be large enough to fully manifest everything Wartime Sakura had ever been.
And she would surpass that Sakura, too.
She had Enma. She had Hiruzen Sarutobi's full, rounded-out instruction.
The scroll in her hands was a technique from the medical-nin curriculum that was equally invaluable in surgery and combat — a true all-purpose tool.
The Chakra Scalpel.
As she pulled the medical scroll out of the drawer, though, a small yellowed slip of paper caught her eye and made her eyebrow arch slightly.
A ramen coupon.
The very first gift Naruto had ever given her, four years ago.