Love's Recipe ~Choji~

A small bit of sugar, a pinch of cinnamon, and one sprig of fresh vanilla. It's the only three ingrediants for my brothers favorite dessert. Strange though, how those ingrediants are said to be the purest ingrediants in the world, but yet together they make a dirty looking treat that has my little brother under a spell almost. But then again, in my years, I've found that pure things can be tarnished, just as things that are dirty can be washed a purified.

But how do these things start out so pure and become tarnished? That is a question I ask when I'm standing in my kitchen. So many times I've found my ingrediants less than perfect, which is all I will accept for my food. You see, I've spent a great deal of time in my kitchen, learning about the food I handle, creating new tastes with only the freshest of ingrediants. But most importantly, I've spent a great deal of time figuring out how to make people enjoy the foods I create.

Each day I start out by going to my brothers garden. He started planting when the doctor told him he was in to poor of heath to be a ninja, and he really has a green thumb. Every tomato is firm, yet juicy and delicious. His apples shine a perfect red or green, depends what I'm making that day. My Father is a hunter. His game is only ever the finest, the biggest bucks and the fatest geese. He knows better than to bring me small fry. But the greatest asset, the thing that perfects my cooking, is my mothers ability with animals. She has three hens, Mara, Cara, and Sara, who are fat and lay fine large eggs. Her cow produces milk so sweet you would think it was laced with sugar.

My family loves my cooking, and they work hard in their perspective feilds to bring me the finest ingrediants every day. But I work hard too. I work full time at a barbaque restraunt at the edge of town and work on my abilities everyday, so that everyones work isn't for nothing. People come and go and enjoy the food I provide. There are four people I see most often, a ninja squad, who come in at least three times a week.

There is a girl, who has beautiful blonde hair and eyes of blue that matched the sky. Across from her is usually a tall thin man with dark hair and eyes to match who never really seems that interested in anything. Next to him is a larger man who eats the food I make him with a whole hearted love, a man with long brown hair and a true love of food. I enjoy him the most since he leaves a three dollar tip for me everytime he comes in. I think his name is Choji, or something like that.

Normally there is an older man with them, their sensei I believe. But I haven't seen him a few months. Come to think of it, the tall thin man hasn't been to... happy since he stopped coming in with them. I know when something is wrong with my regular costomers. I can see the changes i their faces, the changes in their eating patterns. I care about my costumers very much, and if they seem unhappy, I try to talk to them and figure out of something is wrong.

The three are in today, sitting at their normal table. But today is a special day. It's the tenth anniversary of the restaurants opening and I have an idea. After seasoning the beef pieces for the tables and cutting the veggies, I piled the plate and walked it out, knowing it was their usual. All three looked up at me confused as I sat the plate down.

"Hi guys! I'm head chef here and it's your lucky day! Today is our tenth anniversary and as loyal customers, you guys get a plate on the house!" I said, excited.

The blonde girl looked up at me incredulously. "YOU are the cook?"

"Yes Ma'am. Been here for three years now and I've seen a lot of you three. But where's the other guy?" It was dead quiet and the skinny one looked down at the table with an unhappy expression on his face. Crap! Subject change activate! "My name's Alsono Ukine and if you need anything at all you come straight to me, kay?" The girl smiled and the larger man had already thrown the meat on the grill and started to chow down, giving me a thumbs up.

Heading back to the kitchen I smiled to myself and thought about what else I could do to make them happy. Like I said before, I worry about my regular customers. They are what makes a restaurant a real restaurant! Because it means the food was so good they keep coming back. My cheeks grew warm with pride as I thought that. There are only a few dishes we actually cook back here, but otherwise my job is to cut the meat and season it as well as the veggies.

Generally here, I work all day and go home around seven to cook dinner for my family. My weekeneds are always free though. Standing in the kitchen I began to peal a bowl of potato's to boil for one of our side dishes. Soon, a large hand came into my view as it put three dollers in the jar for cook tips. It was the large man who I believe is named Choji. He smiled to me and waved and I did the same, the knife still in my hand. His smile was always large after eating here, and there was something inside that wanted to see that smile more and more.

After working for the rest of the day I clocked out and headed down the road to the store to pick up a few things before going home. I had no idea that fate had a work in progress for me in one chance meeting.