Queen of Tomatoes

Naruto (c) Masashi Kishimoto

Queen of Tomatoes © fhclause

Tomato, a very popular fruit with the trademark colour red that if they are observed from afar, can be easily mistaken for apples.

Tomato, a very popular choice of fruit to be put into any kind of dishes let it be breakfast, lunch or dinner. But if they were to eat on their own, most people would cringe.

Tomato, a kind of juicy fruit that if they were made into a juice drink, only desperate vampires who looks for blood substitute or doctors with blood phobia but determine to overcome that phobia dare to drink them.

Tomato, a kind of fruit that is lucky to be chosen—out of any fruit that are sweeter and juicier—as the one and only favourite dish/fruit/snack by none other than Uchiha Sasuke.

To be honest, Sasuke never thought much of tomatoes before. Yes, he ate them, but like everyone else, he ate them with other things such as in salad or as pasta sauce or as a sandwich or burgers fillings. He never realized the real potential of tomatoes.

Until one day.

During lunchtime when he was in his elementary school, he would always ran to Itachi's block—thank god for same school!—and ate lunch with him because his brother always managed to drive the fangirls away, even his own. He didn't know how his brother did it, but he did anyway and that was what was more important. Yes, the fangirls were still around while they were eating, but at least they weren't so close that he felt someone was breathing down his neck.

Nevertheless, being the sneaky weasel that Itachi was, Sasuke can only come and eat with him with one condition: eat all his share of vegetables.

Itachi was a responsible child, but the only irresponsible thing he did was to never eat his vegetables. He always sneaked the celeries or bell peppers or tomatoes to his plate whenever mother or father wasn't looking. Sasuke never understand how Itachi can grow so tall when he never ate his vegetables. Mother said eating vegetable helps you growing up.

That day was no different. Sasuke frowned at his lunch as Itachi kept on piling it with more and more vegetables. "Aniki, don't you think you need to eat even just a little bit of veggie? They're good for you."

Itachi flashed him a brotherly smile. "Foolish little brother. As long as you eat other food that contains the same vitamins and fibre the vegetables have, you'll be fine."

"How fine can you be if you keep on eating sweets?" Sasuke mumbled.

Itachi flicked his forehead. "Stop complaining and eat your food."

Sasuke pouted and started to pick his food. He cringed when he saw his lunch was practically mounted with a lot of cherry tomatoes and internally cursed his brother. He eating vegetables didn't mean he liked them. He only tolerated them. He was still a kid after all.

Sasuke glanced at his brother and from the amused look Itachi gave him, Sasuke knew he was enjoying this. And he had no way out unless he wanted to brave the fangirls.

Sasuke sighed. There was not enough rice or meat to eat the tomatoes with, so all he can do was to eat them. Raw.

He picked his chopstick and picked the smallest cherry tomato he could find and popped it into his mouth. He closed his eyes and bit his lips as the sweet sourly juice ran through his tongue.

Then he heard a squeak.

Not a squeal, but a squeak.

Sasuke pried his eyes open and saw one of the fangirls was looking at him in horror.

"S-Sasu—Sasuke-kun... did you just... Did you just eat that tomato raw?"

Sasuke gulped the last sourly taste and blinked at her. The room had suddenly become too silent that he can even heard the whisper of the girl from far away. "Yeah...?"

The squeak became louder and this time the other girls were sharing the same horror look. They started to scoot away from him until they were all gone.

Being a genius that he was, Sasuke got a light-bulb moment.

Eat tomato raw=fangirls run away

From that day onwards, Sasuke asked his mother to pack extra tomatoes into his lunchbox. He even asked to put varieties in it, so he can know which is the most convenient to have as a snack, which one is the sweetest or the sourest, which one is the juicier and which one is reddest. It took time and real patience to get used to the taste of tomatoes, but he persevered.

He didn't eat his lunch with Itachi anymore either. In fact, he thought it was amusing to look at Itachi being scolded for not eating his vegetables.

With all the tomato-obsessed research he'd done, Sasuke now knew everything about tomatoes. Fangirls still avoided him during lunchtime. Naruto proved his idiocy when he stole and ate a yellow pear tomato from his lunchbox and spit it out when he realized what it was. Itachi's left eye subtly twitched every time he asked his mother to cook a tomato-based food for dinner.

Ahh...The power of tomatoes.

But there was still one type of tomato he still hadn't figure out yet. The rare type. They come out in pairs.

Always.

They always appeared when someone—especially boys—came near them. Their redness varies in different situation, but they were always red. When he came near, he swore he could feel the heat around them. They looked so round, so soft, so red; he wondered what they taste like.

They are the cheeks of Hyuuga Hinata.

Hinata's eyes shifted to the ground when Sasuke came near her. When he didn't move, Hinata glanced up and blushed when she realized he was staring at her. "Um... C-Can I...help you?"

The Uchiha boy kept staring at her and that made her uneasy. She blushed harder and started to poke her fingers together. "Umm... Uchiha...san..."

Then she whimpered in pain.

Sasuke was pinching her cheeks. "Hmm. So they are as soft as they look... and quite warm too."

"Fhfeeehh?" Hinata mumbled incoherently as Sasuke stretched her cheeks.

Naruto hit him from the back of his head. "Oi! Bastard! Don't bully Hinata!"

Sasuke rubbed the back of his head. Did the idiot just smack his head? "Moron. I was just researching."

"Huh?"

Sasuke ignored him and pointed his finger at Hinata. "You. Lunch with me."

Hinata stopped rubbing her cheeks and blinked at him. Naruto gaped at him like a fish while the whole class—especially the fangirls—suddenly looked at him as if he had just grown a second head.

Hinata's cheeks became redder.

"Eeeeeeeeeehhh!?"

================================(-^v^-)==============================

"Bastard! You asked Hinata for a date!? A date!? We're like, nine years old!"

"Stop your shouting, Naruto. And it isn't a date. It's a research. And why are you here anyway?"

"Dude! You asked Hinata for date. I have to see this!"

Sasuke sighed and looked up. Everyone thought so too, apparently, considering how all his classmates were snooping around and kept glancing his way.

Where is that girl!?

Just as he thought that, the door to the class opened. He glared at her as she meekly nodded at him and sat reluctantly in front of him. "Where did you go?"

"I—My lunch b-box was with Neji-nii-san. I—I had to look for him...and...umm..."

"Tch. Whatever. Let's eat."

She nodded again and gently opened her lunchbox. He did the same while ignoring Naruto who was watching them back and forth.

"Um...Naruto-kun... Aren't you g-going to eat your lunch?"

"Huh? Oh! Don't worry about me, Hinata-chan! I have some bread with me. See?" he said while showing a wrapped bread jam in his hand.

"I-is that enough? W-would you like to share...my lunch...with me...?"

"Really!? Lucky!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes as his blond friend started to pick some rolled eggs and sausages from Hinata's box. Idiot.

"U-Uchiha-san. Y-your lunch box...really do have a lot of...tomatoes, ne?"

Naruto faked a shudder. "I don't know how he could eat all of them. Yuck!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes again. "They're good for you, idiot. Maybe if you stop abusing your tongue from eating ramen all the time, you'll know how tasty they are too." He turned to look at the girl in front of him while popping one campari tomato into his mouth. "I like them. You have a problem with that?"

Instead of getting intimidated, the Hyuuga shook her head. "N-no, because y-you're right. Tomatoes...are good for you," she said with a smile.

Huh. And she didn't even blink when I eat the tomatoes raw. Interesting.

...How about this then!

"I eat them everyday in every meal. Raw. And I drink tomato juice after every meal. Fresh."

Naruto gagged while Hinata puckered her lips into an 'o'.

Sasuke blinked and stared at her lips. Even her lips look like tomatoes! Pruny ones!

"Oi...Sasuke. Why are you staring at Hinata like that?"

"Um...U-Uchiha-san?"

They're so round, so soft, so red, so…

"Eek!"

Uchiha Sasuke grabbed Hinata by the shoulder and bit her cheeks.

"Sa-Sasuke!?"

Sasuke pulled back and licked his lips. His eyes widened and he looked up to the frozen, red Hinata.

Firm like beefsteak tomatoes but sweet like cherry ones. Could she be—!?

Then he realized another thing. Everyone in the class stared, frozen.

Being a genius that he was, Sasuke got a light-bulb moment.

Hinata=Queen of Tomatoes

Bite Queen of Tomatoes=Everyone got stoned

Sasuke turned to Hinata again. Her cheeks were still red.

"Hinata. Be my girlfriend."

A fanart/omake of this fanfic can be found in my profile

Yup. That was weird. Blame my boredom. Oh yeah, if anyone is following Rune Factory 4 news religiously, you probably would know about one of the character-a doctor with the phobia of blood, but drinking tomato juice to overcome it. I dunno how that works, but it's a great thought. Thanks for reading ^v^ Feedback/reviews appreciated.