Chapter One

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Beaver Tails. In fact, I don't own most of the exotic foods you'll hear about throughout the whole story.

The window in my kitchen was broken. It refused to shut. One innocent day, I was hot while cooking so I opened it. Later, I discovered it wouldn't close. It wasn't that bad, considering it was the middle of the summer and golden rays of sunlight were pouring into my apartment. There was no balcony near the window and I was on the third floor of a five story building complex so there wasn't really any risk of anyone breaking in and stealing anything. Unless that person was a shinobi but if they were, they could simply break my lock. And if a normal thief got in, well, he probably worked so hard to get in that he deserved whatever he stole. Still, I would get it fixed soon.

I pondered over whether or not it was the kind of job you needed someone specialized to fix as I quietly drank my coffee.

Unlike most people, I am a complete morning person. I love how the light slowly peaks from the horizon after hours of darkness. I love the fresh smell of the morning. I love drinking my coffee. Most of all I love the calm quietness of it all.

Yet, all good tings must come to an end. I put my now empty coffee mug into the sink and brushed my teeth. Once I was in the clear, I locked my door and started the nice walk to work. My mother had always told me to fully appreciate the little things in life so I had come to notice little things about my day that I loved. Little things that people barely even thought about.

My name is Okasawa Korela. Whereas my family name is boring, my mother stressed out for four months, trying to find a decent unusual name for me. She ran across the name Korela in a book. It wasn't even a good book. Some stupid pornographic romance novel called Icha Icha Paradise. What was my mother thinking when sheread that crap anyway?! Then again, when I mentioned it to my father, he just giggled so I guess it's one of the many things I'm better off not knowing.

I work at my parent's exotic food restaurant. When they first started it while I was, like, five, it was small. But, as it turns out, exotic food is getting more and more popular.

The walk from my apartment to work was nice, as I said before. Shops were opening with employees fresh for another day of work, a soft, sweet scent coming from the Yamanaka flower shop, shinobi bouncing from rooftops, young children racing to school.

Yep, I'm a genuine morning person.

When I reached the restaurant, I saw the girl I was training, Michiru, had already arrived and was nervously playing with the hem of the uniform's black dress. I smiled sympathetically. She smiled back weakly. I knew the feeling. She was shy like me but after a few more days, her shyness wouldn't apply to work anymore.

I changed quickly so she could have something to do soon. After living with my easily stressed out mother, I found that people would tend to calm down as long as they had something to do.

As I instructed her to help me set up the tables for breakfast, one of our other waitresses marched in. I grinned at Aurelie, my best friend. Her name was taken from a fairytale. Lucky.

Everyone loved Aurelie. Some guys visited the restaurant just to ask for a glass of water from her (which she would spit in more often than not). She was downright sexy, rude enough to be spunky, witty and somehow loveable. I always felt like I should be jealous but when you love someone, you don't really have jealousy for them. Not as much anyway. It's because they're themselves and they love you the way you are, just like you love them.

"Hey Kobra. Seen any killer butterflies lately?"

Kobra was her nickname for me because I was once attacked by a garden snake for no apparent reason at her house. I also had an irrational fear of butterflies.

"No but I did see this guy with an amazing mustache. I gave him your name and number Goat Girl." Tragically, the fairytale girl she was named after was turned into a goat throughout the story. Aurelie was also freaked out by men with mustaches. It wasn't a phobia but they scared her. Something about hair growing in unnatural places.

"Good, when he calls, I set up a date, murder him when he arrives and hide the body in the bathtub. One less of them in the world. If anyone asks, 'Oh! So that's why he was taking so long in the bathroom'." Everyone fooled around like this with friends. The only friend I fooled around with like this was Aurelie. She was special to me.

My father poked his head out of the kitchen. "What's this I hear about murder?"

I loved this restaurant. There was always a friendly atmosphere, something I believed was extremely important. My parents cooked every exotic recipe they could get their hands on. My personal favorite was Beaver Tails. It was a dessert made of an oval shaped piece of dough, roughly the length of my forearm that was deep fried in hot oil. It came with tons of topping but the best two were having it covered in cinnamon with hot pieces of apple or covered with a buttery chocolate sauce with pieces of slices bananas. It came from a small village in the Grass I believe.

Aurelie opened up the restaurant just as Michiru and I finished putting the menus on the tables. Nobody would come in for a few minutes so we sat together in a small corner where we could see and be seen by the customers. During the conversation, I was happy to see Aurelie and Michiru warming up to each other. It had worried me a bit because the last waitress I had trained had gotten into a cat fight with Aurelie. Yeah, if Aurelie didn't like you, she could be a bitch. She hadn't liked me at first yet now we were best friends. But I was the exception, not the rule. The Aurelie-doesn't-like-you-so-get-the-fuck-out rule. Kyouka was serving some of our first customers so when a small group of ninja came in, I quietly got up and went to them. The blond girl looked slightly familiar.

"Welcome to Okasawa's! If you would follow me, I could get you seated."

They followed me as I put them next to a window. I took my pad out from my apron pocket and put down the table number along with the seats as I asked what they would like to drink.

The blond girl ordered a glass of orange juice, the pineapple haired one on her right ordered a coffee and the larger one across from her ordered the same as both of them and a glass of milk.

It was as I as preparing their drinks that I overheard the other waitress, Yuki, exclaim to Kyouka, "Hey, isn't that the Ino-Shika-Cho trio from Rookie 9?" As she said it, I suddenly remembered why the blond girl looked so familiar. Of course! She probably worked at the Yamanka flower shop. Ino Yamanaka. That was her name. I passed the shop about twice a day. I felt like hitting myself on the forehead.

Over the course of the next few days, I would see the chubbier ninja in here, occasionally accompanied by a friend. Apparently, the exotic food was to his tastes, though by the way he ate, I guessed anything was. He would sometimes yell out at my Dad when something was really good, getting on my father's good side. My father loved to have his ego stroke. Aurelie seemed to find Chouji really funny, from the way he ate and acted I think. The guy had even warmed up on me too, though that wasn't saying much. I warmed up to nearly anybody unless I got really bad vibes from them. Some people were actually freaked out by it.

Two Week Later –

I smiled at the cashier as I finished paying before gathering my bags. There were three large brown paper bags filled with groceries. Until I moved out of my parent's house, I'd never truly realized how expensive living really was. Then again, I didn't buy just anything for food. I was obsessed with good quality stuff, like my father.

Thank god I could carry them. It would have been a mess otherwise. They were heavy but I didn't live far from here. That's why I loved my apartment. It was small but close to everything. Perfect, considering I lived alone. Also, the noise of the town helped me write. I don't know why but when I'm doing nothing, I like silence, but when I'm trying to sleep or write, I need some background noise.

And, of course, as I walked the streets, I did the one thing that always seems to happen, but never to me. I tripped. My sandals, though cute and bulky, were actually quite heavy so I didn't lift my foot high enough as I was walking and tumbled face first. I hit the ground and held my cheek which was throbbing in pain for an instant before rushing to pick up my things back up. This was embarrassing. People giggled as they walked around me. Yeah, gather round and see the girl who tripped over nothing.

Someone started helping me pick up my stuff but I just quickened my pace, not daring to even glance at the person. God this was embarrassing. Did I ever mention that I hate being the center of attention? At least the brown paper bags hadn't broken so I could still reload my stuff into them.

When we were done picking up my stuff, I mustered up enough courage to look the person in the face, my own face still red. My eyes met a guys surprisingly round eyes as he grinned at me. His teeth were so white they blinded me for a moment.

"Would you like some help carrying your stuff Miss?" He said in a loud, energetic tone, as I took in his green spandex suit, the dark green jonin vest and the red shinobi headband tied around his waist. As I realized what he had offered, I reddened even more and shook my head furiously. "No thank you! Really, it'll be fine." I exclaimed, hoping I sounded convincing enough. To my dismay, he shook his head, "I refused to let such a nice girl carry such heavy bags!"

Nice girl? He didn't even know me. It was nice to hear though. Hey, I am a girl! I would've preferred carry my own stuff but seeing the look of determination on his face, I handed him a bag reluctantly and took the other two in my arms. I nearly jumped when he grabbed the heaviest bag from my arms, claiming he was more than strong enough to carry it.

The walk to my apartment would have been awkward, had he not been so outgoing. He asked me at least a dozen questions, which I hesitated to answer at first but by the time we reached my apartment, he was making me giggle. Not straight out laughing but giggling was a start. His name was Rock Lee but that was pretty much all I had discovered about him. I unlocked my door and made him give me my bags before I actually opened the door. He waited for me to get inside the apartment where I said "Goodbye Lee-san". He took this as his cue to leave and hopped off the balcony, yelling "Goodbye Korela-san!" Though it was weird to see someone jump off my balcony, I giggled and waved slightly with my somewhat free hand, even though I knew he couldn't see it.