Sakura walked through the dirt path between the trees.  Eishi had asked her to wear something she was more comfortable in instead of her too-short uniform.  So here she was, wearing a gray sweater, white t-shirt paired with navy blue leggings and shoes. 

A few minutes later, she reached her destination.  Except nobody was there.  Unless, you counted a squirrel who nibbling half heartedly on an acorn as "somebody." 

That was how it was for a while.  Just Sakura and the squirrel. 

Until Eishi and Rindo showed up.  The squirrel fled, out of fear of the loud chatter coming out of the Elite Ten's mouths. 

Sakura clicked her tongue disapprovingly and gave Eishi a pointed look.  "You've got some nerve to be this late, Eishi-kun." 

Eishi was too busy looking at the squirrel, fleeing from the scene.  "Eh? A squirrel!  Oh my God, Kura-chan, you were with the squirrel? Did the squirrel bite you?  Rindo, help me!  A squirrel bit Kura-chan!" 

Rindo stepped up and examined Sakura.  "Hah?  Whaddya mean?  I don't see anythin'."

Eishi stopped his pessimism right away and apologized.  He was about to say something among the lines of, "This is the Elite Ten.  Now gawk in all of our glory!" but a midget-of-a-boy (who Sakura, using her "professional investigating skills," knew was Terunori Kuga, eighth seat of the Elite Ten) with yellow and black hair stepped up and questioned her status. 

"Tsukasa-senpai, who is this?" he asked in a condescending manner, a hint of rudeness leaking into his words. 

"Terunori-san, if I were you I'd probably look twice and see if the person in front of me looked familiar." Sakura replied sharply. 

"Elite Ten, before I introduce myself, and I don't want to sound boastful here, I know that everybody here except for Rinacchi, Satoshicchi, Eishi-kun and Rin-chan will be bowing at a 90 degree angle.  Please refrain from doing that." 

Terunori scoffed loudly.  "As if!" 

"Oh, do you want to put that to the test, Terunori-san?" she asked testily, standing up.  She was starting to really dislike him.  "The name is Nakiri Sakura, since you really wanted to know." 

Despite her speech about refraining from bowing at a 90 degree angle, the remaining six members of the elite ten bowed down either way. 

"I apologize for my rudeness, Nakiri-sama!" Terunori apologized dramatically.  "Anyways, as you've probably heard, we are the Elite Ten and...."

"Yes, yes, I already know all of your names and positions by heart."  Sakura interrupted. 

"Really?" he asked. 

"Yes.  Nakiri Erina, tenth seat.  Eizan Etsuya, ninth seat.  Terunori Kuga, eighth seat.  Isshiki Satoshi, seventh seat.  Kinokuni Nene, sixth seat.  Saitou Soumei, fifth seat.  Akanegakubo Momo, fourth seat.  Megijima Fuyusuke, third seat.  Kobayashi Rindo, second seat.  Tsukasa Eishi, first seat.  And then me, Nakiri Sakura, the zero seat." she answered and flashed a cute peace sign. 

Rindo looked confused.  "Hah?  Zero seat?  Since when?" 

"Ojiisan.  He wanted me to become part of the Elite Ten again.  But all the spots were full, so he created the 'zero seat' for my use only."  A few of the Elite Ten were wondering just who this "Ojiisan" was.  The people with more common sense remembered that she was a Nakiri, granddaughter of Nakiri Senzaemon, the devil of food. 

After a very lively conversation, ("She beats your height, Terunori-kun." Kinokuni remarked unhelpfully.  "Shut up, woman!" Terunori shouted furiously) the Elite Ten parted ways to their own stations. 

"I look forward to working with you, Nakiri-sama."  Kinokuni said formally.  Despite her thoughts of "sama?," Sakura nodded and said the same. 

"That girl, Nakiri Sakura, is really interesting."  Eizan muttered to himself. "It's time to get Mimasaka Subaru."

_________________________________________

Today was the second day of her teaching, and it would be her first class with Soma.  It would be her first chance to see how well Joichiro had taught him.  She had heard of the honey-salt incident through Chapelle-sensei and hoped to see his flexible skills. 

She couldn't anticipate it.  She had to guarantee that he would be poisoned. 

So here Sakura was, right before class, getting a student to to do the job for her.  The boy's name was Fujumi Rarota and he was one of the two who actually sabotaged Soma's dish the other day.  Disgusted with his actions, Sakura knew that his hatred for Soma would make him faithful to her requests. 

Everybody was deathly silent. 

There were two cooking stations that were not filled up and the other students already pitied the two, Tadokoro Megumi and Yukihira Soma, to what would be their punishments. 

Finally, Soma entered the classroom boldly with Tadokoro timidly following him.  "Um...sorry for our tardiness, Nakiri-sensei.  We had an accident."  Soma just yawned loudly and nodded his head. 

Sakura eyed them, stealing a glance at Fujumi who just nodded nastily one more time.  "I accept your alibi, Tadokoro-san.  However, seeing that you have thrown away precious time from my class, your actions will result in punishment that is yet to happen.  Otherwise, I will proceed with explaining today's lesson." 

There were many students at Totsuki and only a few could enter a class at a time.  All first years were to learn the same things but at different times.  So Sakura would be repeating the egg frittata episode again. 

"Okay, your first assignment today is to cook your very own recipe of this simple egg frittata." she wrote the standard recipe on the board. "Use any ingredients you want that the pantry provides. The time limit is 2 hours. When you're done I will test the dish and see whether it receives an A rating or not. Be aware that your introductory stance also decides whether or not you get a failing grade. You may begin!"

45 minutes into the cooking, Tadokoro and Soma were nearly done.  While Soma was busy inspecting the many different spices in the shelves (again), Tadokoro was working hard on her own frittata.  Sakura gave the subtlest nod to Fujumi who made sure nobody was looking and poured a generous amount of salt over Soma's yet-to-be-cooked frittata. 

When Soma saw all of the salt on his frittata, his eyes widened.  Fujumi was in their class again, and Soma knew what he had done. 

Sakura smirked.  "What will you do, Yukihira Soma?"  she whispered to herself. 

Of course, the first person to come up just HAD to be Matsuzaki Koichi's twin brother.  And of course, he just HAD to be as big-headed.  "The name's Matsuzaki Shoichi.  Taste the dish, it's guaranteed to be an A!" 

Matsuzaki Shoichi already failed the introduction.  Nonetheless, Sakura tasted a piece of his egg frittata. 

"Matsuzaki Shoichi." she announced.  "I cannot give you an E rating." Matsuzaki grinned proudly.  "However, I cannot give you an A, either." 

His grin faltered.  "What do you mean?" 

Sakura sighed.  She had had this discussion to many times with the previous students.  "The frittata is perfect, unlike your brother's.  However, you're too big-headed." 

A few students laughed. 

"A chef should be very humble.  Nevertheless, in terms of your cooking, it receives in A.  Your introduction?  Not so much.  You may go."

Matsuzaki shamefully shuffled back to his station.  

"Next!" 

A very shy girl that looked like she would get along very well with Tadokoro stepped up.  "M-my name is Kimido Chiro.  I h-h-hope you like my egg frittata." 

Sakura tried it.  "Excluding your stuttering, Kimido Chiro, A rating." she announced.  Kimido smiled. "Thank you, Nakiri-sensei!" she bowed. 

"Next!"

"Rokita Horiko." a girl introduced. 

Sakura waited for her to go on.  But she didn't.  So she tasted her frittata. 

Her eye twitched. 

"Rokita Horiko," she announced.  "E rating." 

Rokita's eyes widened.  "What-but I-"

"Do you want me to go over everything you missed, Rokita-san?"  she suggested quietly, testing her in a dangerously calm voice. 

Rokita shook her head nervously and scurried back to her station. 

Soma approached her. 

"Yo, Nakiri-san." 

Everybody sweat dropped at his informal use of name.  "Soma-kun, you're done I see." 

Soma nodded his head.  "Yukihira Soma.  This is the Yukihira-Style Egg Frittata.  Dig in!" 

Sakura nodded, approving of his sort-of formal introduction.  Tasting a bit of his egg frittata (cue the impossible physical reactions), she widened her eyes.

"You used pineapple slices in your egg frittata, didn't you?" 

Soma nodded.  "The sweetness and sourness of pineapple easily cover up the distinct saltiness that a certain somebody-" he cleared his throat, glaring at Fujumi who feigned a look of innocence.  "I mean, it covers up the saltiness.  Of course, I disposed of what I could, but some of the salt had become part of the frittata itself.  So what you're eating right now contains a lot of salt, Nakiri-san.  But it just doesn't taste that why, thanks to the pineapple." he gave her his signature smug grin. 

"Yukihira Soma," she announced.  "A rating."  Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Fujumi (who actually received another E rating due to improper use of a stove) deflate. 

___________________________________________

It was four in the morning and Sakura got up thanks to some crows that seemed to have not woken anybody else up.  

So here she was, up and about, walking about the Polar Star Dormitory and- "Soma-kun, what the heck are you doing up at four in the morning?!"  Sakura asked as quietly as she could. 

Soma grinned.  He was sitting on a tall wooden stool criss-cross applesauce.  "Yo, Nakiri-san." 

"Uh...hi....??"  Sakura was confused. 

"I'll be quite direct and just say, Nakiri-san, I want to challenge you to a-"  The words barely left his mouth but Sakura interrupted him.  "Nope.  Sorry, but I don't do Shokugeki's anymore." she gave him an apologetic smile.  "But if you want we can compare each other's cooking techniques and skills." she offered. 

"Sure."

"Okay, let me get changed into my cooking uniform first."  Sakura tip-toed as fast as possible up the stairs and through the hallways. 

After she got changed into her uniform (just imagine it looking like Hayama's except silver and white) and tied up her hair, she tip-toed back down the stairs again. 

"A tradition of mine, Soma-kun, is after I reveal somebody my cooking skills, they can no longer refer to me by my last name, regardless whether or not I hate them or they don't want to.  Got it?  So after this is over, you can no longer refer to me as Nakiri-san or even Nakiri.  It's just going to be Sakura or Kura-chan." 

Soma nodded.  "Sure!  Plus Kura-chan sounds cute.  Expect to hear 'Yo, Kura-chan!' from now on, regardless whether or not you like it!" he grinned. 

Sakura smiled.  "Great.  So the time limit will be two hours and the theme...the theme will be breakfast.  So let's get started!" 

Soma nodded.  "Okay!" he whipped out his white sash from his arm and tied up his bangs. 

And they started cooking. 

Soma was planning to make a very light omelette that was based off of the egg frittata Sakura had had them cook in class.  The omelette would be eaten with peas and the secret ingredient would be the tomato sauce hidden inside the omelette. 

Sakura, however, had other ideas.  While she was going to use egg as her main ingredient, she was going to make a souffle.  And really, not just any souffle.  Like a very thick crepe, the souffle would be hard on the outside but very fluffy on the inside.  It was going to be sweet, but healthy at the same time. 

First, she got out portobello mushrooms from the kitchen's pantry.  Mincing the portobellos, she then sauteed them, leaving behind the juices.  Then, she cracked 2 eggs, seperating the yolks from the whites.  The whites were blended into a very silky meringue while the yolks were fried into the sauteed portobellos' juices, creating a portobello frangrance themed omelette. 

Next, she got out strawberries and mashed them into a very clumpy strawberry mush.  She diluted the strawberry mush so it wouldn't be very prominent within the souffle, but would instead leave a slightly sweet aftertaste. 

The meringue (which was now considered the base of the souffle) was very thick.  Sakura minced the omelette into small pieces, and poured them into the meringue mixture, along with the portobello mushrooms.  She fried them all together one last time before adding a few spices on top and soaking it in the diluted strawberry mush she made before. 

They were both about to announce they were done when somebody flicked on the lights.  They had initially been cooking in the dark, and the new change of lighting was blinding them. 

                                                                                                                                                                         "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?!" a voice yelled.  

It was Fumio. 

_______________________________________

A.N: I just want to say in advance that whatever I put in for cooking isn't true.  It's just my imagination.

Word Count: 2,156 words (To Big Sis: Oi, Sis! I've beaten your record once again!!)

Ja nee~

~Lady Catherine Griffin of Somewhere Over the Rainbow