Love between Cucumber and Peach (1)

And... our mission was crap, we got to help this helpless fool in love to court the woman of his dream, and I couldn't even get to see Tsunade in the mission room because she had to prepare to go to the summit of the five Kages.

"Aw, damn it, why there is no exciting mission at the moment?!" Naruto crossed his hands and placed them behind his head, walking behind us with a bored expression.

I also felt a little strange, it's like almost all of the missions were low-grade ones; taking care of someone's pet, tailing down someone's husband for the possible cheat, or kinda a bit of the both, taking care of someone's husband and prevent him from cheating... liked I would care at all.

"Well, it can't be helped, the high one probably had been taken, or it just there is no such trouble at the moment," Sakura said with a helpless expression. Meanwhile, Kakashi just walked with us, pretending didn't exist.

"You know... this mission is probably not bad, taking a role of match-making is harder than you think you know," I grinned.

"Now that you mention it, who's the client again?" Sakura wrinkled her eyebrows.

"A man named Tokio is a son of the cucumber's lord, he is fallen in love with the daughter of the peach's lord, but all of his attempts to court her resulted in nothing, so he asked for assistance," Kakashi said casually.

"Why can't he just man up and confessed to her, sounds so complicated..." Naruto pouted his mouth, clearly had no interest in the mission.

"I am sure he had done that already," Sakura rolled her eyes, then she said, "clearly this daughter of the peach's lord is hard to please, or maybe this name Tokio isn't handsome? Since she's a rich girl, her taste for a man may be a little high?"

"Well, we knew once we got there..." I said.

Several minutes later...

"Wooo... may beloved Chan, how come you not accepting my love for you?!"

The four of us dropped a sweat, in the vast courtyard of a manor-like house, a big man holding two cucumbers with his both hand bawled the tears out of his eyes, despite his status as a son of the rich, this guy didn't have the single temperament of it? I meant, where was the elegance of the noble? Or maybe the arrogancy? Anything but pathetic miserable sod in front of us.

His face wasn't really bad, it just sort of ordinary, his body might be a little big though, making him fit more as the son of the pig's breeder than a cucumber's farm.

"You see... my son has been like this since the morning..."

The one who greeted us was a middle-aged woman, dressing fancy from bottom to top, slightly plump, like all over the place had meats. The servant on her side lifted up the pack of tissues as the middle-aged woman tore a paper, wheezing her nose on it before giving it back to the servant, then she proceeded to sob again.

"Tokio really loves Chan, he is so heartbroken she rejected his courting," the woman said while sobbing.

"Um... what kind of courting he had done before?" I asked, looking at the pitiful big guy, boy, even I would say no to him.

"Well, he had prepared 3 bags of cucumbers as the dowry, but she rejected."

No, shit! the four of us exclaimed in the heart, what the hell she wanted to do with that many cucumbers?!

Sakura awkwardly looked at the big man, then she said, "Why don't we try something simple first, let's say... asking her out of date, for the starter?"

"Good idea, that way we can also know more about this Chan," Naruto nodded, then approached the big guy ahead, patted his shoulder, said, "relax, dude, we help you out."

"Woo... thank you!" he leaped and hugged Naruto, the tears and snot smeared his cloth, the clutch also tight, made the blonde winched in pain.

"Aw, aw, okay, you don't have to kill me!" Naruto used escaping technique to get away from the big guy's hug, patting his chest in a relief manner afterward.

"Alright, why don't we separate, say... me and Sakura go to meet this Chan, and Naruto and Kakashi get this handsome back on his feet and be ready for the date?" I thought for a while, this perhaps my chance to get closer with Sakura. Kakashi and Naruto didn't complain about my suggestion.

Along the way toward the daughter of the peach's lord, I discussed with Sakura how should we send this invitation to Chan.

"Can we just ask?" Sakura frowned.

"We can, but we want her to agree, right? Let's make sure to use the method that has 100% assurance."

"Hmm... if Chan doesn't like Tokio in the first place, it is most likely she will not agree indeed," Sakura mumbled.

"So, our first course is to determine what Chan dislikes about Tokio."

"It's probably his appearance? If he a little small, perhaps he can be a handsome fella."

"You think so? I think it's more about his personality, appearance can be tolerated, but personality is a big no if it is too bad."

"Really? what do you think is bad about Tokio?" Sakura looked at me with interest.

"First, I can see he is too persistent, nagging the person you like too much, it's the same you are pushing him or her away."

"It's that... bad?" Sakura's voice somewhat trailed, I didn't know if she was asking this topic for Tokio or for someone else, maybe herself?

"Of course, the number one rule to get closer to your crush is to take everything slowly, the first step is the introduction, then ask her or him out, if they have taken interest with you, then you are lucky, but if they are not, then ask them some other time or just have a cup of coffee, naturally your treat."

"..." Sakura seemed deep in thought for a while, then she asked, "Abe, you seem to know about dating, care to answer a few questions?"

"Well, if I said yes, what are you willing to compensate me?" I smirked.

"I'll buy you a snack," she said with a smile.

"You think I am a puppy?" my face became slightly distasted, only a pet that would be given a snack once they show obedient behavior.

"At least you can be a handsome puppy, and please take it as a compliment, I don't mean to insult you, maybe," Sakura grinned.

"Then buy me a spoon, that's all I asked," I waved my hand, signaled her to ask whatever she wanted to ask.

Although she felt a little strange I demanded a spoon, she cast aside her doubt, then proceeded, "You see... there is this... boy, he is what you can say... someone who is acting differently due to a certain circumstance, he didn't like to hang around with other kids much, he trained and practiced, for the sole purpose to achieve his goal, no matter how dark it is."

"Then there is this girl, she is ordinary, but she like this boy very much, at first she likes how cool and handsome he is, then after she got to know him better, she fell more for him, she felt his pain, she offered to help him shoulder the pain."

"But you know what the boy said to the girl, he said 'you are annoying'."

"Abe, what I want to ask is... where did the girl do wrong?"