Island of Storms [Sakura]

Chapter 53 | Taste

"Let the meeting begin!" Sakura humorously declared as she entered the room, dark circles under her eyes after not having slept for two days. Those that had been on the mission had all gone home after the successful capture of all those known and suspected to be part of the coup. Those left over were Shikamaru and Sakura, who decided to get over with the final meeting for what was found during the raid of the Daimyo's palace.

"I prepared a list. Sorry if it's hard to read," Shikamaru muttered as he handed over a sheet of paper to his father.

"A sword from Kiri and a highly wanted criminal from Kumo... Both impressive finds... With those and the other criminals on this list, I'm sure it's an open-and-shut case."

"Seeing as the judges are the Daimyo himself and Grandmother, I think they were destined to fail in the first place," Sakura muttered as she stood near them. The reason for this being if she were to sit down, she would fall asleep. A small ruckus was heard outside the door before a knocking came, causing them to look toward the door.

"We're in session!" Sakura called. More shuffling was heard before they wrapped up what they were doing since they found little else that was new. Shikamaru opened the door only to find the three brothers.

"I heard the Lady got back," Isobu spoke up before the other two could say anything. Shikamaru had heard from some people they had run into that the three-tailed chakra beast had decided to take a human form as well to follow Kurama around while the rest were away on the mission. He was tall, just as the other two were, and had a larger frame that was comparable to Choji and the form Shukaku had ended up with. His hair was a gray shade of blue and his eyes were a striking sandy yellow similar to his two brothers'. Shikamaru realized that he was holding a box in his hands, which were covered by green oven mitts.

"Sorry, we tried to tell him but he just pushed his way up here..." Shukaku grumbled. Sakura poked her head around the door and Isobu lit up.

"The Lady! I made something!" She raised a brow in question before nodding for them to come in.

Upon entering the room, Isobu placed the box on the table gently and opened the lid to show an omelet.

"Yuka taught me how to make this!"

"You made this? It looks very nice!" Sakura smiled. Each person in the room could tell just how excited he was to show it off. "Am I allowed to eat some?"

He nodded quickly and pulled some chopsticks out of the side of the box the bento box was sitting in and held them up for her. With a small laugh, she cut out a piece and picked it up before putting it in her mouth, watching an expectant yet worried look come over his face. She smiled after swallowing.

"It's very good," she praised before watching as a sparkle of victory came to his eyes. "Are you interested in cooking?"

She asked this as he urged her to eat more. He pulled out chopsticks for the rest of the group that was there and they looked to Sakura, who nodded for them to try it.

"Yes, the smells in the place Brother took me were very nice."

"Oh?" she wondered, looking at Kurama as she assumed that he was the one who had taken him.

"There was a problem in a bar and he came with me when I sorted it out," the nine-tails explained, gaining a nod of understanding from the young woman. "When he showed interest in the food the waitress offered to show him some things and he spent all day learning how to make that."

"She said we started at lunch," Isobu countered, causing Kurama to shrug and mutter a 'whatever'. The three men that had also tried the omelet gave their praise as well before the three-tails beamed and picked up the box.

"I'm going to go share it with more people!" he exclaimed before hurrying out the door, Shukaku telling him to wait as he quickly followed him. Kurama gave an apology to the group before hurrying out after him as well, leaving Sakura to laugh at how lively they were.

╌❀✿╌╌💮╌╌✿❀╌

After leaving the meeting room, Sakura entered the archives to find Kosai sitting at one of the three tables in the room. Laid across the table's surface was a scroll that she could see was filled with different jutsu and next to him on the floor were two backpacks.

"How's the work going?" she asked, stopping next to the table. He looked up from his copying and gave her a bright grin.

"Pretty good! I finished reading everything in the history books and my summary is all done," he said, gesturing to the stack of papers that was a few centimeters thick.

"I'll have it bound for you since you worked so hard," she smiled. He gave her thanks, showing her that the cover design was a large Yuki Clan symbol with the writing 'History of the Yuki Clan, Summarized by Shuji Kosai.'

"You're already fond of the name I see."

"Yeah, it just feels... right."

"I'll make sure to get it back to you—"

"Well actually, about that..."

"Hm?"

"I don't actually want that in the Shuji Clan archives. I was wondering if it could just be sent back to Lady Mizukage or put in the general history archives or something..." he muttered, giving the stack of papers a slight look of disdain.

"I see... I'll talk to Eri," she said, referring to the archivist who was out of the room at that moment. "What is it you're doing right now?"

"Oh, right now I'm taking notes for basic Ice Release jutsu," he explained. "It's mainly just hand signs for the release that you can form into whatever, which isn't what I had thought it would be."

"Anything you want?" she asked, trying to keep from looking at the scroll.

"It reminds me of Naruto with the rasseingan. He made it into a shuriken so he could throw it. I've been thinking, what if I use Ice Release in it? What'll happen?"

"I see."

"I've been making a list of a bunch of different things to try out once I get the gist of how to use the release. But I guess it's pretty late, I should probably lock these scrolls up again and go home."

"Are the rest of the Yuki books in those bags?" she whispered. He gave a nod and she knew he was planning on burning them at his home. "Have a good night Kosai."