Work Text:
Little Sasuke did not like Math. Aside from it was taught by a lively teacher, early in the morning at his school, the topics were very easy especially for a genius like him — numbers and shapes were a child’s play for him.
Still, his mother reminded him to not take the subject lightly. He should not underestimate it for he did not yet see the terror of Math particularly during an exam. He did not yet know that it could make a student feel stupid and doubt the lessons that he learned.
Thus, when Sasuke has an upcoming Math periodic test, he and his mom started to review for the covered topics of it.
At first, Sasuke was still listening to his mom, until he was tasked to solve word problems; he became stubborn as a bull.
“Sasuke-kun, why have you not yet answered the problem sheet that I gave you? You should practice solving, young man!” Mikoto chided.
The said boy frowned. He really did not like to answer the questions; number one, it was boring, number two, he was lazy to write and number three, he could not comprehend the mindset of adults.
He could not understand why would they create a math problem and pass the responsibility of finding the solution on it to a five-year old child like him.
Weren’t adults old enough to solve math problems on their own?
More importantly, he also has a problem of his own involving a certain pinkette; he could not be bothered by others.
“No, I don’t want to, mother.” He replied. Despite his mental rant about his reasons, he did not voice it out for he might get another tough lecture from his mom about good manners and right conduct.
“Mou, Sasuke-kun. What would I do with you?” Mikoto sighed, troubled by her youngest boy.
Luckily, her eldest son came in to her view. Maybe, he would know how to handle little Sasuke.
“Itachi, dear! Come here for a second and lend me a hand!” She commanded.
“What’s wrong, mother?”
“You see, Sasuke does not want to do this problem sheet. I don’t know how to make him move his pencil,” Mikoto complained, desperate for a help.
Itachi raised his brow and requested for the paper, hastily scanning the questions which were all about Shapes, Addition and Subtraction.
“I see… Mother, you should revise the questions. Sasuke would not really answer this questionnaire at all.”
Mikoto tilted her head as if inquiring what he meant which was replied by Itachi through a demonstration; he looked at Sasuke and began testing the knowledge of the young boy.
“Sasuke, what was the shape of Sakura’s notebooks that has four sides?”
Sasuke’s ears perked and looked at his brother with a smile, he caught his attention. “That’s easy brother. Sakura’s notebook was rectangle in shape. She even put stickers of stars and moon on it…. And, and, she has four rectangular notebooks; one for Math, one for English, another for Science and the remaining is for Homeroom.”
Itachi nodded. “Okay, then what if Sakura gives you a letter today, and tomorrow she would give you another one. How many letters would you have in total?”
“Two letters, brother, and I would keep it in my treasure box. But, if I would write a letter back at her and she would send a reply on it, then I’m going to have three all in all.”
“Hn… Then, let’s try a harder question this time, Sasuke. If Sakura’s hair has a length of 12 inches long and she cut it by 7.62 centimeters, how long is her hair in inches?”
Mikoto gasped with the inquiry. She knew his youngest son was a genius but, conversion of metric units was not yet taught in preschool.
“9 inches, brother. To be honest, I like her hair better when it’s shorter, perhaps 6 inches would look good to her, though she always looks pretty, anyway.” Sasuke retorted, shocking the Uchiha matriarch.
‘How was Sasuke able to answer that?’ Mikoto wondered, and as if she was heard, Itachi looked at her eyes and telepathically revealed the cause.
‘It’s because the question has anything to do with Sakura, mother. You should include his crush in the problem statement for him to be an active participant; he’ll perfectly answer you…’
“I got it!” Mikoto shouted, signaling Itachi to go away for she could manage the little brat already.
“Let me try, let me try! Sasuke-kun, if you have five apples and Sakura asked you to give her three apples, how many apples would you still have?”
“Of course, zero; none. I would give everything that I have to Sakura, mother. Why would I only give three?” Sasuke pouted.
“Wrong! You should still have two! You could not put in the exam paper that you’ve given the remaining apples.” Mikoto explained, stressed with Sasuke’s logic.
“Why? Wasn’t it better if I share more? I am not stingy,” Sasuke asked, forming a cross-popping vein in Mikoto’s head.
“No, because the sentence did not state that you should give more than what was asked!” Mikoto supplied.
‘Patience, patience, Mikoto,’ she chanted like a mantra on her head.
“Well anyway, one more… If Sakura just bought a new pencil case with no sides, then what is the shape of her new pencil case?” she added.
“Oval, mother.”
“No! Circle was the obvious answer, my dear!”
“But oval doesn’t have sides, too. Besides, Sakura doesn’t like circles, she told me about it. I am sure she would not buy a round pencil case.”
“Fine… acceptable.” Mikoto begrudgingly agreed.
Geez, her kid was really witty. Simple arithmetic, suddenly turned complicated with him.
“Okay, this is the last one, Sasuke-kun. I’m sure, this time, you could get it correctly.”
“Sakura was eating lunch alone, then a— “
“But I always eat together with Sakura, mother.” Sasuke interrupted.
“Very well… you and Sakura are eating lunch together in the table and Naruto plus Ino joined you. How many kids, all in all are at the table.”
“Still two, mother.”
“No! It should be four! It’s two plus two equals four.”
“Hn. But Sakura and I would move to another table, so it would just be Naruto and Yamanaka on it. I don’t like sharing Sakura’s time with them.” Sasuke defended.
A vein popped in Mikoto’s head again, then she shut her eyes and calmed herself down.
She gave up; she was raising the white flag.
She did not care anymore if Sasuke would pass the upcoming exam or not.
Who cares if he would submit a blank paper?
Who cares if he would write ‘Sakura’ in his answer sheet?
At least, she would have a daughter in-law secured in the future.
Uh-oh!
***