Shadow: Okay, I just started writing this. I don't plan what I write I just sit down and write. I don't know whether or not you'll like it.
Naruto (trying to whisper, but failing miserably): Pst! Shadow! Is it time yet?
Shadow: Hm, oh yeah, take it away Naruto.
Naruto: Disclaimer, Shadow does not own Naruto!
Shadow (muttering under her breath): That's what you think.
Naruto: What? I couldn't hear that.
Shadow (waving arms around): N-nothing
Arisa's eyes skimmed over the shops that she passed as she walked down the Konoha streets. She was looking for the sign that would offer some sort of haven to her.
"Hey! That's my ramen! Get your own, damn it!" she heard a voice yell.
"Shut up Naruto! Is that anyway to treat your elder!?" the voice roared back in humored indignation.
Turning towards the direction the voices had come from, Arisa saw the sign reading "Ichiraku" on it. Smiling nervously she hurried over to the small booth that the ramen was served at.
"Welcome!" came the man's greeting, booming in her ears.
Arisa only nodded in reply, slipping into the seat. When the man asked for her order, she merely pointed to an item on the menu. While the old man turned and started to prepare the bowl of ramen for her, she glanced around at the other occupants.
"Damn it Ero-sennin!" a blond boy exclaimed, reaching for a trademark frog wallet that an old man with impossibly long hair was holding over his head. Despite the fact that the boy was about seventeen and just over six feet tall he still couldn't reach it, which made Arisa believe that he was just indulging the old man.
"Ah, ah, ah, Naruto. You own me, remember."
"Damn it! I do not, you're always taking the money I earned from my missions!"
Arisa rolled her eyes as the food was set before her. She glanced up at the man from underneath her circular wooden hat. He looked at her strangely for a second as she grabbed her spoon and sipped at the soup. It was a tantalizing salty taste with just the right amount of herbs and peppering. Next, she grabbed her chopsticks and, breaking them apart, slurped up a noodle.
She fell in love with it instantly! It was perfect! The taste was superb, without any flaw! Slamming down her chopsticks, jumping up from her seat, and pushing back her hat, she gained the stares of the boy and old man, as well as the ramen place owner.
"You!" she shouted, "Old man Ichiraku!" she pointed at him, "Make me your apprentice!"
"Huh?" the blond boy asked, eyes opened in surprise while the man behind the counter just looked blankly at her.
"You heard me! Make me your apprentice! Teach me how to make the perfect ramen!" Arisa exclaimed again.
"You're one of the ryou-nin, aren't you." He asked, nodding as if he already knew.
Arisa folded her arms and nodded with closed eyes, "Uh huh!"
"You? You're a ryou-nin?" the blond boy asked in surprise.
Arisa shot him an angry glance with her bright, forest green eyes, her thin black eye brows scrunching together, "Yeah! What of it?!"
"Isn't that one of those food ninjas? The ones that would make food for ninjas while they were on missions? I thought they had to stop because the ninjas they fed got too fat!" he pointed an accusing finger at Arisa, "Besides, you're a girl!"
"You baka!" she exclaimed, slamming a clutched fist down onto the crown of his head, "There are girl ryou-nin, just like there are girl shinobis."
"Ow!" Naruto said, clutching at his head and bending over in pain.
Arisa turned back to Ichiraku, "So, old man, will you make me your apprentice?"
He stood there, scratching his chin for a second, "Well, I guess…. I have been needing some help since Ayame left to be married."
"What! You're not seriously going to hire her are you?!" the blond ninja exclaimed.
"Well, I do need some help around the shop. But," he turned to Arisa, "I don't think I've seen you around here before."
Arisa smiled kindly, her previously hard attitude changing to polite as she sat back down. "My name is Arisa Uchikaru. I'm twenty years old and the daughter of Hakkaku Uchikaru."
"Ah! Hakkaku! He's your father? How is he?" the old man smiled.
Arisa looked down a little sad, "He died last year, ate himself to death I'm afraid."
"What? How can someone eat himself to death?" Naruto asked in his normal rude self.
"Naruto…" Jiraya warned, yawning, even though he was thinking the exact same thing.
Arisa laughed, "I guess it's a curse, or something. It's happened to a lot of the ryou-nin in the past. I'm glad that I know when to stop eating." She smiled, patting her own stomach.
Naruto eyes the girl suspiciously, "Ichiraku, are you sure you want to hire her?"
"Hey! Choji, let's go grab something to eat at Ichiraku's place. I heard that there was some new waitress or something." Shikamaru said, hands clasped behind his head.
"A new waitress? Is she taking the place of Ayame?" Choji asked after quickly agreeing.
Ino shrugged as the five of them (Ino, Shikamaru, Choji, Sakura, and Kiba) walked down the street together. The five had just come back from training together. All of them were sweaty and exhausted.
"I could stand to eat some of that diet ramen." Ino said, thinking about her perfect figure as always.
"Diet ramen is a waste of ramen. If you're going to eat ramen, you might as well have the good stuff." Choji proclaimed in that serious tone he gets when talking about food.
"GOD DAMN IT NARUTO!" A voice shouted, echoing down the street to reach the groups ears, while the smell teased their bellies. "I thought I told you, no more ramen on credit!"
"But Ero-sennin stole all of my money!" Came Naruto's whining voice.
"Oh boy." Sakura mumbled.
"How troublesome." Shikamaru exclaimed as the group came into view of the shop. They stood outside, watching as Naruto got the crap beat out of his head by a strange girl and a thick wooden spoon.
"But, Arisa nee-chan!" Naruto cried.
"NO!" she huffed, "Besides, you already had two bowls!" she folded her arms. Just then she noticed the new comers. "Welcome!" she said, flashing a sweet smiled towards them, all previous malice that she had shone towards Naruto was gone.
The group sweat dropped as they entered hesitantly.
They sat down in seats after exchanging greetings with Naruto.
"Hello, welcome to Ichiraku's Ramen shop, may I take your order? May I take your order?" she asked.
The group eyed her suspiciously. She had vivid green eyes that stood out against her pale skin. Her hair was long and black, but was currently pulled up into a high ponytail with her chin length bangs hanging to highlight her face. She was tall, definitely not as tall as any of the guys in the group, but probably about the same height as Ino or Sakura if not an inch or two taller. She wore a white apron and underneath hers was a pair of peddle-pushers that flared out at the bottom, made of a dark navy blue polyester and a shirt that was light blue and cut off right above her breast in a V-neck and a white tank top underneath, yet traveled down to mid-thigh. Over her clothes she wore an off white jacket, despite the heat, with the ryou-nin symbol on the back. On top of her head, she also wore the circular hat.
"Um? Hey, no offence, but could you guys stop staring at me?" she asked, placing a cup of water before each of them.
The group laughed nervously before looking away.
"Psst…" Naruto whispered to the group, none to quietly, "She may not look it, but she's twenty, two years older than we are!" he tried to be quiet, but Arisa over heard him.
"You baka! What the hell do you mean I don't look it!" she said, beating him with the wooden spoon over the head again with anime veins popped out on her forehead.
The group backed away, sweat dropping.
"Hey, that jacket… are you a ryou-nin by any chance?" Sakura finally got up the courage to ask.
"Huh? Oh, this? Yeah. My father was the leader, until the baka ate himself into his grave. The dumb ass! Yeah… so…." She didn't know what to say under their stares, "Do you guys wunna order or not?"
Choji was the first to order, then the rest placed their and sat back, waiting for it to be finished. Ayame turned around and started helping Ichiraku with the noodles. As she worked she said as an after thought, "Oh, my name is Arisa by the way."
"Arisa?" Ino asked, "You're new here right? What are you doing in Konoha?"
She started to boil the noodles while the old man got the soup ready, "Eh? A year or so before my old man died, I decided to learn all there is about the most famous dishes around. I set out about five years ago and have learned just about everything from the chefs that my father held in praise. That is, except for ramen."
"What!" Naruto exclaimed, "You can't cook ramen!"
Ino leaned her head down on her arms, "If you can't cook ramen, then what are you doing working in a ramen shop?"
Arisa smiled goofily, "I can cook noodles, it's the soup that's my problem. Besides, I never had much of a taste for ramen." She said, looking up into space thoughtfully.
"What! You don't know how to cook ramen?! You don't like ramen!? Why the hell are you here?" Naruto exclaimed vehemently while the others smiled at how worked up he was getting about ramen.
Arisa waved him off, "I said I never had much of a taste for it. Not that I didn't like it. Besides, I'm here to learn how to cook it. I don't have to like it to cook it."
Choji frowned, "But cooking anything, especially ramen, requires putting your heart and soul into it. It's full of emotions, if you just do it uniformly, then there is no way that any ramen that you make will be worthy of praise."
Arisa just stared at him for a second, stunned at his view on cooking. She rubbed the back of her head, "Well, I guess that true-."
Ding!
"Oh, the ramen is done!" she exclaimed, all previous thoughtfulness lost, and helped the Ichiraku pour the noodles into the bowls. "Okay, here we go! Diet ramen, diet ramen, chicken, beef, pork and, since I'm going to be nice to you Naruto, pork." She set the bowls down one by one. When she set the bowl before Naruto, their fingers skimmed each other and they both jerked back quickly. Arisa was blushing wildly, "Um… I-I should make some more noodles for the next customer."
"We have plenty." Ichiraku said kindly, "You've been working non stop since this morning, how about you sit down and rest. You look kind of tired."
Arisa smiled gratefully, "Thank you, I am a little worn out." She said, then untied her apron. She slipped out from behind the bar and into an empty seat at the end of the group that just happened to be next to Choji.
Sipping from the glass of ice water Arisa took the time the others ate to think to herself, about things in general.
Ah, this is nice. I love the atmosphere of this place, it's so open and friendly, I'm happy that Ichiraku is the one that have that recipe and not some one else. I actually am quite fortunate. Everything is working out just right. I have a job, an apartment, friend (if that's what you call Naruto) and hopefully I can get along with this group, although I'm kinda afraid of intruding on them.
"Hey!" Arisa exclaimed out of nowhere.
"Cough! Cough! Cough!" Kiba choked, "Oh my god! Warn someone before you just take off and shout out!" he said, face turning blue.
"Haha… sorry…." She apologized, then continued without another thought while Kiba kneeled over trying to get the food out of his lungs, "I just realized, you guys didn't tell me your names!"
"I'm Sakura." The pink haired girl exclaimed.
"Ino." Said the pale blond sounding emo, but giving a small smile.
"Shikamaru." Said pineapple-head, bored.
"Um Chuhmhu…" said the large boy with red hair poking out from under a thong-like forehead protector while shoveling large batches of food in his mouth.
"Great!" Arisa said, "Because I can sooo understand gargle."
He took a large gulp and gave a bright smile. Arisa felt herself smile at his carefree expression, "I'm Choji!" he said, then continued to eat.
"Oh, and he's Kiba." Naruto said, pointing to wild-boy with dog-wonder in his lap who was currently finishing choking and whose face was returning to a normal color.
Naruto smiled at her, grinning as he ate his ramen that she was treating him to (Because Kami knows that Ichiraku was going to take it out of her check). Arisa felt a slow blush begin to rise as he smiled, she looked away quickly. The group continued talking, not realizing that she wasn't paying attention.
Arisa wasn't listening, she was too busy thinking about what her blush could mean. I don't… you know… like him. Do I? her eyes widened in alarm, No way! I mean, there's nothing wrong with liking him… it's just that, I have to learn how to cook ramen from Ichiraku, then I'm out of here. My stay should only be a year here at most. There is no way I can fall for him. Besides, I just met him.
While Arisa was talking herself out of falling for Naruto, the group was deciding on what to do for the afternoon. She was startled when a hand popped in front of her face, "Hello! Anyone there?" the annoying blond boy asked.
"Huh?" Arisa jumped out of her thoughts, "I'm sorry, please for give me, but could you repeat yourself?" she asked, posing her question in a very polite manner that had Naruto frowning.
"We asked if you were going to come with us, we were going to train some more." He asked, "We're supposed to meet Hinata there and if you come, we could split up into groups of four. You do know how to fight, don't you?"
"Eh? Of course, I know the basics for ninja jutsus, although I never really have taken the Chunnin exams… all well."
"Well, we'll go easy on you, okay." Kiba said sarcastically.
"Watch it, dog-boy." He eyes narrowed.
"Dog-boy?" her eyes raised, amused.
"Yeah you heard me." She smarted, then turned to Naruto, "Sorry, but I have to work."
"What? Come on, can't you get the afternoon off? You'll be back in time for the dinner rush." He complained with a pout and Arisa got the sudden urge to kiss his cute lips.
Whoa! Not two times in one day! She exclaimed, mad at herself.
"Go on." The old owner said, "I can handle the store for a couple of hours, just be sure to be back before six."
Arisa glanced at her watch, it was only one, "Okay, thank you, sir."
"You guys ready to go?" she asked, standing. The others did as well and she followed them out of the store.
Did you like it? If so/not, please review.