An Amazing Dish

General POV

~Boom~

An explosion resonated in the summoning realm of the pandas, but not a single panda cared. It was often a common occurrence to hear those explosions, and they all knew who was responsible for them.

It was their human Sage, Ishizu Sasaki, who was experimenting with his Fuinjutsu; again.

He was one of the best of not the best Fuinjutsu expert currently alive, but this didn't mean he could make seals without a problem. Not if they were the first to ever be created. It was the same as with the seal to suck up the bijuu chakra without harming the Jinchūriki.

Only through trials and errors could Ishizu make such a seal, and even then, it wasn't perfect and had improvements later on. Seeing the war coming, Ishizu came up with special seals he wanted to create.

One was to completely erase the weaknesses of the Edo Tensei. One weakness the forbidden jutsu had was Fuinjutsu itself, as people could seal the body and make them useless.

So Ishizu worked on a seal to block this kind of method. Unlike Kabuto, he had only a few reanimated shinobi on his sleeves. Each one had a special purpose, making it easy to look over each.

Another weakness, although extremely rare for a shinobi to know, was the counter to release the Edo Tensei. Both Madara and Mito Uzumaki showed knowledge to break through the restraints the summoner put on them.

The last weakness was that strong emotions could also release a summon. Since his reanimation would fight against people, they shared a strong bond with the possibility of this happening wasn't small.

Madara wasn't Ishizu's key problem, since he was on Kabuto's side, but he needed the cooperation of Mito and if she didn't cooperate… well, then he had to force her.

Of course, he would explain his plan carefully, the risks and benefits, and if she agreed to help him, then there was nothing else to worry about.

However, if she stood against his goals, then Ishizu couldn't be passive and deal with her. No errors were allowed once he began.

It would take a while for the Kage to gather and Ishizu had to find the right seal combination.

"Cough, cough. Another failure, huh? A Fuinjutsu to protect against sealing is harder to create than I expected," Ishizu's voice sounded from inside the smoke.

"Maybe you should stop for a moment and relax? It was so nice to see you interacting with the panda babies. You looked so flustered to please all of them. They want to meet you again," Fuka said as she braided Tayuya's hair.

"I will do that. Didn't expect them to swarm me, but they helped me relax quite well. Still, I have to finish my tasks before relaxing. How about you two? I haven't really much interacting with you two and I want to somehow apologize, so how about we together eat dinner?" Ishizu suggested in a simple and casual voice.

Both women stared at the man with wide eyes. He has done so much for them and now he wanted to eat with them dinner?

"You can cook?" asked Tayuya, amazed, and Ishizu nodded, a bit confused.

"I do because I had… well, let's just say a history, and learning to cook was something I wanted to do. Is that really weird? A wife that has a husband who can cook is more likely to stay with him than if he can't. Don't want to sit and let her to everything herself. It helps improve the relationship and what best than to go through the stomach?" explained Ishizu and quickly backed off when he saw the hungry eyes of the two women.

"We accept!" both yelled and ran off to Ishizu's surprise.

He shrugged and stopped his Fuinjutsu to go to find ingredients to make some food. A certain memory flooded his thoughts as he remembered the time Kushina cooked him a certain dish.

Flashback no Jutsu

"No, I don't want to eat this," a 9-year-old Ishizu whined, running away from his mother, who didn't seem to be pleased.

Naturally, the Uzumaki caught up to the boy and dragged him back to the house. She ignored the screams and pleadings.

On the way back, they saw Obito and Rin coming.

"Kushina-san, Ishizu-kun, good afternoon. What are you doing?" Rin asked politely.

"Help me, you two!" Ishizu cried out in help. "This monster found a new way to create a disaster. A new dish! Can you believe it? And now she wants to force it down my throat. Help me!"

The two looked confused and before Ishizu could elaborate, Kushina's forehead grew a tickmark.

With a quick hit to the head, she knocked the boy out and dragged him home. The two Genin followed Kushina, curious about what was going to happen.

Ishizu POV

I groaned, waking up to see that, to my horror, I was duck-tapped to a chair. I struggled to leave, but the red-haired demon did a well-done job.

Was that chakra draining duct tape? Who in their right mind would create something like that?

Mito Uzumaki sneezed in the pure realms, and Hashirama shivered.

"Mmhhm," I tried to scream for help, but a gag in my mouth prevented me.

"Ah, you are awake, my lovely subject," I heard Kushina's voice coming through the door.

She was wearing an apron and some kind of bizarre kitchen utensils were in her hand.

"Mhgf, mfghd," (please let me go)

"Don't worry, you won't die. On the contrary, you will like it. I have practiced this for a long time for Minato and I want your honest opinion."

Kushina took my chair and dragged it into the kitchen. The kitchen looked a bit messy from its usual look. Utensils lying on the table, potatoes, and lettuce on the floor.

At least there wasn't anything charcoaled, and it didn't smell like death.

"A soup made of beetroots, chicken meat, potatoes, cabbage, and carrots."

My brain ran through various soups I knew, and I couldn't believe she wanted to make this type of soup. How did she even come up with a soup that wasn't of Japanese culture?

"Hehe," Kushina chuckled, seeing my expression, "One time when you went hungry to sleep after you misbehaved, I heard you sleep talking about this kind of soup.

I don't know how you came up with it. The few details were amazing to list in a dream, but I wanted to try them. It took me over 2 months of trials and errors, but I think I have done it."

My restraints were lifted, and a bowl of the red soup was placed in front of me. I could have run, but the odds of outrunning my mom were nil.

There was no way but to taste it. My memories of my past life were blurry, but I could still taste the soup my grandmother made me when I visited her in her hometown.

I leaned down with my nose to smell and a mixture of aromas that made Pavlov's dog envy bombarded me. I slowly took a spoon to my right and dug inside the liquid. A few potatoes slices and cabbage were inside and I fished for some meat.

I opened my mouth, blew on it a bit and place the spoon inside my mouth.

The moment the soup is touched my taste receptions, my central nervous system sent information to my brain and the release of hormones made me see a glimpse of heaven.

"So, how is..?"

I couldn't answer her because a moan of ecstasy escaped my lips before I immediately dug down for another bite. And another and another. It had the perfect temperature and each ingredient synergies with each other.

The meat was so soft that it melted the moment my teeth touched it.

Finishing this godly meal, I sat down on my knees and bowed in a dogeza to Kushina.

Both Obito and Rin gaped at me since I would never do that.

"Please, sensei, teach me how to make this dish. I beg you!"

Kushina laughed. "Your expression makes me my day. For you to appreciate it... Sure, it was you who gave me this dish, after all."

I could only cry in joy as I jumped and hugged her, which she wholeheartedly returned.

Flashback end.

Ishizu POV

Wiping out the sweat from my forehead, I looked at my creation. The pit was filled with soup and I called Tayuya and Fuka towards the table. I was expecting only the two girls and not a big panda.

*Mmm, an Eastern European dish? You don't mind giving me some, do you?* asked Po before we both could see on the horizon two girls running next to each other to the table.

Their hungry looks told me everything. I was proud of myself.

"Give me food!" Fuka screamed while her hair defied gravity.

"I crave food!" Tayuya spoke while demonic spirits appeared behind her back.

I prepared the soup for them and they dug in.

"!!!"

A smile appeared on my face when the girl's souls departed from their body, only to be pulled back, and they started digging into the bowls.

It was a good feeling knowing the customer accepted your food. Po was eating the soup as well and while he ate slowly and with manners, his eyes showed approval.

"Seconds!" both girls called, and I gave them more.

*An amazing dish, Ishizu. Not only the taste, but the consistency of the soup was wonderful. You picked the right ingredients.*

I nodded as a thanks and made myself a bowl and ate. It was good, no doubt, but I could feel the difference between Kushina's and mine. That, however, wasn't something I could change.

Everyone made their own type and it would never would be the same as someone else's. My late grandmother's, Kushina's and mine were different, but that's why it was so amazing.

Even if it was the same dish and the same ingredients, the taste changed from who made the dish. So there we sat, 3 humans and 1 panda, eating the beetroot soup.

Though it soon became more crowded when other pandas sniffed out the soup and came to join.

For the next hours, I served the pandas soup after soup. Reduced to a mere chef and server.

Meh, I got enough in return so I couldn't really complain.