A/N: Howdy-ho! This here is my first ever foray into Naruto fanfiction, which spawned from a plot-bunny that nobody ever adopted ;;; I really enjoy stories that follow the current manga timeline so Naruto and company are at 15-16 years old here. There are some spoilers here so reading the manga first is highly recommended. By the way, I am not the first person to have noticed this semi-triangle as dave-d likes to use it frequently in his stories.

Haruno Sakura inhaled deeply and took in the delicious aroma of the wonderful concoction in front of her. While not as big a ramen-fiend as a certain obnoxious, blond, orange-and-black wearing teammate of hers, she could certainly appreciate good food when presented with it. Especially after a long day at the hospital.

"Thanks, oyaji-san! It looks really good!", she said appreciatively to the ramen chef who grinned proudly in return.

"Don't mention it, Medic-chan!", he said, calling her by the nickname he gave her a few months ago when she had started frequenting the little ramen shop.

During those two long years of training, hard work and strange, destructive variations of popular Western ball games as played by Tsunade, Sakura found that she had less and less time to eat at her usual favorites. It had been after a particularly grueling training session that she decided to give Ichiraku a try. After all, even Kakashi-sensei and Yamato-taichou were regulars there so how bad could it be?

She had been a regular patron ever since her first beef ramen. Also, Ichiraku-san and his daughter Ayame were good, kind people. She would talk to them in addition to eating, seeing as how Sasuke was away (with Orochimaru) and Naruto had gone off (with the Legendary Ero-Sennin). Ino, who was her junior in medic-nin training, worked at the flower shop during off-hours and quite frankly, wasn't up for much talking since she was still recuperating from Asuma's recent passing.

As Sakura became a more frequent visitor to the ramen shop, she soon found out that both Ayame and Ichiraku were quite close to her blonde teammate and would often tell amusing stories about him. While they all laughed and reminisced fondly about Naruto and his pranks while he was away, Sakura would hear the occasional hint of pity or sadness in the old man's voice. It came up when Sakura asked about how much ramen Naruto would consume in one sitting, which led to bills, which led to Iruka ultimately paying for them. It was Ayame who recounted the times when Naruto would sit alone in the shop, not ordering anything, and would talk and talk to her and her father. Surely, a boy his age would have had something better to do than talk to concession stand employees, she would ask him. The young Naruto would then look away sadly for a brief moment and loudly proclaim his lack of time to play around with other kids and ultimate ambition to be Hokage. Sakura remembered how Ayame and her father looked almost wistful as they recounted the tale. Before being assigned a team, Sakura found out about Naruto's childhood through the Ichiraku ramen stand. Before long, she too would find herself sitting on the long wooden bench in front of the counter, not ordering anything, and would talk for hours on end about her teammate. Ichiraku and Ayame were only too glad to indulge her with stories about Naruto's various stunts and escapades. He had used the ramen stand as a hiding place when being chased by ANBU after a particularly mischievous prank.

Sakura never knew when it had happened. Maybe it was after Yamato-sensei pointed it out to her during a mission. Hell, it might have been two years ago, the minute he had returned from the failed mission to bring back Sasuke and made a promise to her again. But along the way, Naruto stopped being the loud, obnoxious dead-last she had known and became something different. She didn't know what yet but she couldn't put her finger on it.

"Tough day at the hospital, Medic-chan?"

Ichiraku's voice broke through Sakura's reverie.

"Yeah oyaji…", Sakura responded, between bites of her beef ramen, ", a lotta patients today. I had to set two femurs, a wrist and I had to put a broken ulna in a cast!"

Ichiraku and Ayame winced at the descriptions.

"Poor people. That sure is a lot of broken bones! Guess it's inevitable in your line of work eh?"

For some reason, Sakura's face flushed and she ducked as if to hide in her bowl of noodles. There was a near inaudible mumble from the mass of pink hair, as seen from Ichiraku's perspective.

"It….I…..it was just….one person……", Sakura mumbled again, her face quite pink from the combination of the steam from the ramen and the blood rushing to her face.

"It was….that stupid Naruto….he….said……"

And with that Sakura told Ayame and Ichiraku of how a discussion about the Konoha kunoichi had led to discussions of female assets, which then led to the kunoichi of the Rookie Nine's assets.. It was all Ayame could do to resist slapping a palm on her forehead.

"Yare, yare….Naruto-kun should know better than to talk about that in front of a female teammate!", Ayame said with an exasperated grin. Looking if her father was out of sight, she leaned conspirationally over to Sakura.

"Sooooo, what did he say about you?", she said with a slight teasing tone which much Sakura flush even darker.

"W-well, Sai s-said my chest was modest in size…….asshead ….…Ecchi-sensei said something about my legs. And that--that moron Naruto…..!"

Sakura flushed darker still but for an entirely different reason.

"He said man-like strength and a nice round……FOREHEAD! All I need is club and I'm a damn cave-woman!", Sakura ground out.

Ayame bit her lip to keep from laughing out loud. A tiny chuckle escaped her throat and turned it quickly into a cough.

"It's not fair Ayame-san!", Sakura wailed. " Stupid Ino-pig has the longest legs in the whole of Konoha! Like those body-wrappings were holding them down and the second she stopped wearing them, it's like her legs fed on sunlight or something! Tenten-sempai is growing prettier by the second! I know because Neji and Lee can't take their eyes off her when they're training! Temari-san has her own fanclub of boys back in Suna! And Hinata…."

"A-anou….", came a tiny, whispery voice from behind Sakura. Sakura fought down a shriek and turned to find silver eyes, indigo hair and an ample chest hidden behind a loose lavender jacket.

"H-hi! Hinata-chan! What are you doing here?"

"Sakura-chan", Hinata said with a courteous bow, as was taught to an heiress, "I just came to get some take-out for Neji-niisan and Father."

"Oh, okay. You wanna join me?" Sakura smiled amicably, surprised that the stern Hyuuga patriarch would order something as common as street-side ramen.

Hinata gave a shy smile. "Y-yes. He likes to eat it after doing his kata, even though he admits it's junk food."

Beneath the shy exterior, she knew how hard Hinata trained and thus, ended up missing quite a few meals. A soft, gurgling sound coming from Hinata's abdomen confirmed her suspicion. The blush on Hinata's face further emphasized the fact. Sakura scooted to the side of the wooden bench to make room for her companion who had settled down and made an order of shrimp ramen.

"I didn't know you liked ramen, Sakura-chan. I don't see you eating it that much", Hinata said without a stutter. She had been working quite hard to rid herself of it and partially succeeded. Whenever a certain future-Hokage came up in Team Eight's conversations, her tongue had seemed to be glued to her palate. Her teammates, as much as she loved them, took turns teasing her. Even the usually serious Aburame Shino was merciless in his quips. He had said that her fainting before Naruto was good as it eliminated her stuttering completely. Even Akamaru's barks and yips seemed to be reminding her of her cowardice. The soft clack of the bowl of shrimp ramen being served in front of her brought her back to reality.

"Oh? Yeah. I guess just started realizing…..just how much it means to me." Sakura sighed again thinking of Naruto. Which led to the indigo-haired, Byakuugan wielding problem sitting beside her and eating shrimp ramen.

"I've a-always liked it. Even….even when n-nobody e-else….", came the stuttering yet firm response from Hinata.

"I-I know, Hinata-chan.", Sakura cursed herself for stuttering as well. The tone Hinata used, while just as soft and gentle as her usual voice, held a dangerous edge. "It's just that, I dunno, when it went away for a long time, I found that it was a lot more than people thought it was. A lot more than what I thought it was.", Sakura said, swirling the contents in her bowl.

If she were any other person, Hinata would have raised an eyebrow at the strange comment from Sakura.

"Sakura-chan, what do you mean? Ichiraku has never left Konoha. In fact, I don't think it ever left this spot!", Hinata said with curiosity. She knew for a fact it never left after watching Naruto stuff his face for the better part of her Genin days. A nasty voice filled her head. "She's not really talking about ramen anymore, is she?"

"Oh! I…mean….you know, I've been training with Tsunade-sama quite a bit and it's kinda hard to get….some…..ramen?"

Sakura knew that was a blatant lie and mentally screamed at Ayame not to spill anything.

Hinata wore a slightly nostalgic expression on her face as she picked a strand of her noodles with her chopsticks.

"Growing up, I've always watched. Watched hi—er---it turn into something special. Even when everybody else was putting it down, I didn't care because I knew…..I knew that it was so much more than what people gave it credit for and that it d-didn't d-deserve all the bad and hurtful things being said about hi--…um….it."

It was Sakura's turn to get suspicious.

"Wow, Hinata-chan! I never knew you were such an admirer of ramen!"

"Eh? O-oh, yes! I….I mean, I really do like it a lot…..I just don't know what I would do without it….."

Old Teuchi Ichiraku's eyes watered at that statement.

"Don't worry Hinata-sama, Medic-chan! As long as hungry young shinobi like yourselves need a quick snack or pick-me-up, Ichiraku ramen will always be here!", said the old ramen chef, emulating a certain youth-obsessed jounin.

It was incredible; ever since he had become a ramen chef, nobody had ever appreciated his work like these two!

Hinata and Sakura gave a nervous laugh. Both girls felt quite bad at the delusion they fed the old man.

"Sakura-chan?", said Hinata, looking at the steaming bowl of shrimp, vegetables and noodles in front of her.

"Mm?"

"Do….do….y-you really like ramen that much?"

The Hyuuga girl glared at the ramen in front of her as the steam rose from the ceramic bowl. For some reason, the very thought of anybody else liking….ramen right now was really bothering her.

"Hinata-chan….well….I guess….I don't really know. I mean, it just never occurred to me that I could like it that way." Sakura said. It was a game they were playing now. One of the unspoken rules was total freedom to say whatever they wanted in total honesty. After all, it was just ramen, right?

"B-before you realized that….you'd miss it if it was taken away from you?"

Hinata's voice held a slight quavering note in it now. While it took quite a bit to upset the Hyuuga heiress, she was certainly upset now.

"Hinata….."

"B-before y-you realized that…that you couldn't have…..that….." Hinata struggled with the words for a minute, " steak-dinner you wanted?"

As bad as she was feeling from the nausea and the guilt, Sakura was impressed at the analogy.

Steak-dinner eh? Well, it certainly fit that person's bill. Dark and burned on the outside, raw on the inside.

"Hinata, I'm sorry! I can't help it! It….it just happened…..", said Sakura, wishing that she never decided to eat here today in the first place.

Hinata wasn't finished yet. Blinking back angry tears, she continued her tirade, still glaring at the now luke-warm bowl of noodles.

"W-while you….chased after that steak-dinner, you just l-let ramen sit there and get c-cold and spit on!" She was close to yelling now, something that Sakura, Teuchi and Ayame were the first to be privy to. "And w-when you did get hungry, who….erm….what was it that filled you up? It was always ramen!"

Sakura looked guiltily at her own bowl. It had already happened with Ino except she had been the one to break off the friendship.

"Hinata-chan. Look, I'm not even sure at what it is I feel about…ramen right now. All I know is that it's changed. What I know hasn't changed is that you are my friend, Hinata. And if anything becomes definite, we'll talk about it when the time comes okay?"

The silver-eyed girl took a calming breath and hurriedly wiped her eyes with her sleeve. She sniffled a bit and finally turned to her pink haired companion, giving her a smile which Sakura nervously returned.

"I g-guess…I can't blame you Sakura-chan. R-ramen….well people tend to get that reaction when they find out just how incredible it really is."

"Yeah, I guess. It really is, isn't it?", said Sakura, smiling widely now. " So Hinata, what do you like most about it?"

Hinata blushed a deep red and smiled softly as she started to eat her order.

"Um, I like….I like the broth….", said Hinata, taking a tentative sip of the amber liquid with her spoon.

"Really? I enjoy the noodles. They have a great texture.", said Sakura, taking several strands in her chopsticks and slurping them up.

"I like Naruto."

Both girls choked and looked at the grinning face of Ayame. The waitress promptly took a knife and cut a thin, circular slice from a red cylinder sitting on a nearby chopping board. She picked it up and showed the two blushing girls a round slice of fishcake with a swirl adorning its surface.

"Don't you two like naruto? It's the best part of ramen!"

END

A/N Part 2: Like it? Hate it? Characterization just right or way over the top? Pour it all out in your review  Pretty please? If you like it, it'll make me oh-so-happy :D By the way, for those who don't know, naruto is a common ingredient in ramen. It kinda resembles artificial crabsticks except its bigger and has that cool little swirl thingy.