Naruto: Naruto's Uchiha girlfriend is too arrogant

Chapter 589 Tempura

"It's tempura...it looks delicious."

Temari stood by the counter, her gaze fixed on the steaming oil in the pan on the stove, where several shrimp and fish pieces coated in batter were tumbling on the golden-brown oil.

The air was filled with the unique aroma of fried food, mixed with the caramelized smell of flour.

The natural sweetness of the ingredients was brought out by the hot oil, making one's nose twitch involuntarily, and Temari swallowed her saliva somewhat shamelessly.

"But eating this kind of food for lunch will definitely make me gain weight, right?"

No one in Gaara's family is particularly good at cooking. After all, the whole family consists of combat-oriented ninjas, and while the food they can make isn't inedible, it's only very simple fare.

As for the taste, don't expect it to be too delicious. It's just enough to fill your stomach. After eating it, you won't have any urge to "eat it again" or suddenly think of it in the middle of the night and start drooling.

Therefore, Temari considered whether she should set aside some time specifically to learn cooking.

Besides taking care of her family, there was another reason that made her heart race slightly every time she thought about it: Temari and Shikamaru were getting closer and closer.

Sometimes, Temari would lie in bed late at night, thinking about what would happen if she got married in the future. If she really got married and started a family with that person, she couldn't possibly not be able to cook a decent meal, could she?

However, some time ago, one person took the initiative to take charge of the meals for several people.

Standing in front of the stove was a beautiful blonde girl with twin ponytails. Her hair was a bright, almost dazzling gold, with two ponytails hanging down from her ears. Her face was delicate and soft, and her eyes and brows held a subtle charm that was somewhere between a young girl and a mature woman.

She possesses both the innocence of a young girl and the allure of a mature woman; her looks and figure are the kind that would make any woman blush.

She was wearing simple loungewear, revealing a section of her fair and slender forearm. She stood in front of the stove, her movements as practiced as a housewife who had been cooking in her own kitchen for over a decade.

She turned her head, her gaze falling on Temari, and gave her a gentle smile.

"Don't worry. Tempura isn't actually a high-calorie food. Shrimp and fish are low in fat, so eating it occasionally won't make you gain weight."

Temari looked at that face, at that smile, at those blue eyes that seemed to speak volumes. Naruko Uzumaki—she knew that the "person" in front of her was a puppet, something without life.

However, his facial expressions, demeanor, and appearance all looked like those of a real person.

When she smiles, fine lines appear at the corners of her eyes; when she speaks, her lips tremble slightly with the changes in syllables; and when she flips tempura, every joint of her fingers moves in a natural rhythm, not as if pulled by a string.

Every detail tells Temari that this is a living, breathing person, not a puppet or a toy. This contradictory feeling makes everyone feel that when facing Naruko, they will not treat her as a puppet at all.

After Naruko was completely exposed, Gaara no longer had any intention of hiding anything.

He stopped hiding Naruko in the room, and Naruko truly began living with him like a member of the family.

She would get up early to cook, make a cup of hot tea and put it on Gaara's desk when he worked late at night, set out the food when Temari and Kankuro were about to come home, and take the bedding out to air on the balcony when the weather was nice.

She did these things with such a natural expression that it made you feel like she was born to be a member of this family.

Temari was amazed; could a puppet really do this much? She could hardly believe it, and she even considered taking Naruko apart to see what was inside.

But she dismissed the thought after only a second, not because she thought it would be impolite, but because she was afraid that if she took it apart, all she would find was wood and a mechanism.

She preferred to believe that Naruko was Naruko, a living, feeling person who belonged to this family.

Even Kankuro, the manufacturer, was strange.

Every time he saw Naruko busy in the kitchen, he would ask himself, "Am I that good at cooking?"

He was only in charge of the puppet's internal movement mechanism; its external appearance was primarily determined by a beautiful image drawn by a famous painter from the Land of Wind.

The outer shell was made by Granny Chiyo, who painstakingly sculpted Naruko's face, figure, and every curve of her body.

The puppet core was also made by Granny Chiyo.

Kankuro really thought a lot about taking care of his younger brother. He certainly considered that Gaara's feelings for Naruko had far exceeded the scope of "master and puppet".

Kankuro didn't want to delve into what it was, but he knew one thing: that image, the image that Naruko embodied, was precious.

When Granny Chiyo brought Naruko's body shell, the costume was already prepared. In other words, the only people who have seen Naruko's candid moments so far are Granny Chiyo and Gaara.

Kankuro did not tarnish the beautiful image in his younger brother's heart at all.

Naruko continued.

"Tempura has only half the calories of regular fried food. Although it's not exactly a low-calorie food, you can indulge in it occasionally without gaining weight."

After she finished speaking, she used her long cooking chopsticks to pick up a fried shrimp from the oil pan and gently placed it on the absorbent paper next to her.

"Look," Naruko's voice held a hint of barely concealed smugness, "the blotting paper underneath doesn't have a single oil stain."

Temari leaned closer, picked up the shrimp, removed it from the blotting paper, held it up to her eyes, and then looked down at the paper—it was spotless, with nothing on it.

"Huh? Really, not a single bit?" Temari flipped the shrimp over to examine the bottom, then held the absorbent paper up to the light. "It must have been deep-fried, right? How did you do that?"

"Hmph." Naruko made two soft sounds through her nose. "It's because I used a special 'steam-fry' technique. Ordinary chefs don't have this skill."

"The batter for tempura is made with ice water and eggs. And the oil temperature must be controlled at around 160 degrees Celsius; when you put it in the pan, the high temperature will make the batter set instantly and lock in the moisture of the ingredients."

"Then the water vapor inside will create a 'steam environment' in the batter, which is equivalent to frying and steaming at the same time. So the batter itself hardly absorbs any oil."

As she spoke, her chopsticks didn't stop; she picked up another piece of fish and placed it on the oil-absorbing paper.

"Oh my god... this is so complicated." Temari listened blankly, her gaze shifting from the blotting paper to Naruko's earnest face as she explained, a complex mix of emotions welling up inside her.

She's cute, gentle, considerate, has amazing skills, and seems to genuinely love her younger brother...

"If only she were really real," Temari thought to herself. If her younger brother truly had a wife like that, Temari wouldn't have to worry about Gaara's future anymore.