date in Yukihira restaurant 3

"our ancestor from hundreds of years ago always had a dream," Tamako paused dramatically and continued "ya see, to normal people, food is just a means to survive, a place ya go date, to taste the good food and savor it with while enjoying it with good company." she looked down and caressed her daughter's head with a smile

"but to cooks, the kitchen is a warzone, the slightest mistake can't destroy the dishes under your Hand, even the silly mistake of replacing salt with sugar happens under enough pressure, and not to mention what to do when ya use excessive amount and don't have enough under stock, however, what our ancestor feared the most..." she looked at the trio with a complicated look

"would be run out of recipes? heh, it might be a silly question," she chuckled lightly "there are thousands upon thousands of different recipes, and it's interesting since then, then why would our ancestor think that way, well, we don't know, but we are glad they did," she smiled gently,

then she resumed "because if they didn't, we would never reach this level, ya see, our ancestor dreamed that we never run of ideas, to keep creating and creating more and more, because as chefs, cooking our passion, our way of life, if we don't thrive for increase our arsenal of knowledge, we would reach out limit and couldn't improve more, if eating is just meant to survive to us, than we would put our hats long ago and settled on what we already have"

"so our ancestor feared when that might happen, and come up with an amazing solution!" she smiled widely and her chakra flared!, and unlike normal Shinobi, her chakra was calm and concreted "our ancestor wasn't a fighter nor a ninja but had good chakra control, and under their genius and unorthodox thinking, they managed to create a technique for and only cooking! this technique only works when cooking is in mind! it increases the focus and refreshes the memories! and makes the user very sensitive to the ingredients and their control on the amount and quantity!"

the trio gaped, they never heard of such technique, but it does explain how good the food is, it's also opened huge variations of different dishes and recipes, but a question was aroused as Saruto said "then won't be extremely hard to get tracked of every amount, like if even a small amount can change the flavor completely then there is an uncountable number of this different recipes."

Tamako smirked "that's exactly what our ancestor encountered, and afterward they deemed the technique a failer"

"then how are you using it?" sasuko asked

"Because this isn't the original technique! after the ancestry scrapped it, they lived their life until later the answer child found the technique in piles of junk" she laughed while remembering the story for her mother "the child was fascinated by the technique but noticed the problem right away, but instead of throwing away, the child thinks of a way to circle around it and come up with this...the technique I'm using now.."

"the technique now recorded the cook experience all of their life and pass it to their younger generation, when the offspring try it, they get all the previous chef knowledge about cooking and adding their own experience and the pattern goes on, that way, even now, I know the recipe my great-great-grandmother did when she was teen, in exact details!" she smiled widely as they looked at the astonished expression on their faces

"Woah!! that's amazing technique!" naruko excitedly said, "so like passing jutsus but with cooking!"

Saruto had a thoughtful face and Tamako noticed this, and smirked "are ya thinking why I'm telling ya this?" Saruto nodded in surprise and said, "yes, in addition, why have we never heard of such technique, and why won't... for example, the Hokage wants to get his hands on it."

"well for the first question, I'm telling ya this because...I felt like it! hahahahaha!" she laughed heartily, Saruto didn't buy that but didn't voice his opinion "the second, because, well, our family.. wasn't the sharing type, hell, from my own ancestry, I'm the only owner who wanted to share our cooking! and for the third question...I guess shinobi won't care about the cooking world rivalry" she explained

"what?!"

"yep! until now, you never heard of Yukihira restaurant, did you? that's because every generation wanted to keep that knowledge for themselves, they never opened restaurants, just collected ingredients and make different recipes all their lives, they feared if they share the cooking, they might be targeted."

"isn't it a valid reason?" sasuko said, every clan wants to keep their secrets, that's why they rarely marry from outside, even hers, she suspect her parents might be cousins, and marrying from outside, while isn't illegal, it frowns upon, and only hers, the Hyuuga's are the same, they even created a Seal for "quote on quote" branch which totally not slavery by the way, to protect their secret, so sasuko didn't think it was unusual

but naruko surprised everyone by saying "huh?! that's stupid! if Ichiraku ramen did that! I would never able to know heaven!" she said with an obvious face

'you ramen slut!' sasuko thought in disbelief

Saruto smiled wryly and said, "I agree with naruko..at least the first part... food meant to be eaten, hugging it like it was a family's heirloom is surely protecting their secret, but in the end, they lost the fundamental reason they become cooks...to feed."

Tamako looked at Saruto in surprise and smiled widely" I know ya I would like ya saru-boya! that's exactly what I told the old fogies on our homeland! but the ass-in-head foot from grave bastard never listen, the only one who did is my late husband....who was lost looking for ingredients, and found later...but ... " she had a sad smile, and Sumiko teared up a bit

" *sniff* daddy..."

"don't cry sumi-girlie...he is in Foodland..where there are infinite ingredients to make food with!" Tamako ruffed Sumiko's hair and looked at the trio with a warm smile

"Sorry for giving you sad memory.." Saruto scratch his head and patted Sumiko's head for consoling

"hehe... that feels nice.." Sumiko removed her tears and giggled under the warmth touch

"ouch!" Saruto felt pain from the two sides and looked down to see the two sides of his waist got twisted and looked at the two girls who looked at him in a pout

""hmph! that's our date! why are giving attention to another girl!"" they said in union

"hahahahaha! it seems yer girls R jealous!" Tamako laughed in joy and Sumiko had bright cheeks and ran away from his hand in embarrassment

Saruto scratch his cheek and laughed wryly and used both hands to give the two pouting girls their own portion of headpats

"hehehe~" naruko giggled

"hn~" and sasuko nodded in appreciation

and Saruto said without stopping "wait...then how does all this connect to the challenge?"

"ohh! sry, I got sidetracked! to answer yer question, the dishes that cooking in the bad menu, are all used with the technique!"

"what? I thought all dishes like that?"

"nope! what you eat is solely based on our skills and without using of chakra, the dishes on the challenge menu are different, they are full of our chakra and were created under our guidance, it's even healthier than normal dishes and can stay full with it for couple days, but can be only eaten once a week." Tamako explained

"then what about...the clothes part?" sasuko asked while enjoying his tender touch with red cheeks

"oh, that? honestly, I have no idea." Tamako shrugged "it always does it, even our ancestor child was baffled by it, that's one reason we didn't share it I guess, but it's just clothes, I'm not a seamstress I'm a culinarian! hahahahaha!"

'but I am!' Saruto said in his mind, Aimi drilled her knowledge in his mind and he can make clothes with ease... maybe he should open his own business? a thought for another day

"so, saru-boya! are you gonna try it! for you! it will be a free charge! yer handsome little brat so I'll give ye freebie!" Saruto was tempted to change form to show her how handsome can he get, but opted not to do it

"sure, I'll try it." he got interested in that technique, maybe he can check the pattern upon consumption, so he order it, and Tamako smiled at the challenge and went to the kitchen to prepare the dish for him!