A/N: This is my Secret Santa gift for Hinata796 from NarutoArtCommunity on DeviantArt. I wrote what I hope is cute and satisfactory...and hopefully won't reflect too much that I wrote this while I had the flu. It's my first time writing MinatoxKushina, but I think I'm totally in love with them now. XD
Disclaimer: Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto. I make no money off of this. I wish I could, though.
No Ramen for Breakfast
a Naruto fanfic
by Rhov
Kushina knew pregnancy would be rough, but seriously, this morning sickness was becoming plain annoying. After seven months, it was practically a routine. Wake up, vomit. Brush teeth, vomit. Make tea, vomit after half a cup. Eat crackers, more tea, she'd be fine for a whole hour, and then sure as sunrise coming up...vomit. Still, for the future of her baby, she could put up with it.
There was one thing she could not put up with, not for another week.
No ramen for breakfast!
Kushina loved her ramen. For as long as she could remember, when no other food was available, at the very least she could depend on instant ramen in her cereal bowl. She loved the taste, the texture, the feel of the salty soup running down her throat, and the child-like joy of slurping up her noodles. Ramen was good when you were super hungry after a mission. It was good on cold evenings after a long patrol. It was good when you were sick.
Ramen...mmmmmm...ramen!
As she nibbled her morning saltine crackers, she thought how good they would taste in a bowl of ramen broth. She craved miso ramen, with fresh negi, half an egg floating amidst that savory broth, four pieces of chasyu pork (normally they only put three, but she wanted four, darn it!) and topped with a pink and white swirly kamaboko.
"Sheesh, I'm really craving it!"
Minato looked over from where he was preparing tea for Kushina. He hummed at her sudden exclamation. "Cravings? I thought you got over those months ago."
"Well, I'm craving again...badly!"
He smiled at the chance to be useful for her. She was such an independent, self-sufficient kunoichi, he hardly ever got the chance to spoil her. "What can I get you, dear?"
"Ramen!" she barked. "Miso ramen with chasyu and negi and moyashi and hourensou and tamago and a side of spicy kakuni buns and..."
"Whoa, whoa," the fourth hokage laughed. "You know what the doctor said. You need to watch your diet, especially during this time of the pregnancy. Nothing spicy, and less salt."
Kushina's bottom lip stuck out as her eyes squinted in stubbornness. "I wanna eat ramen."
"Not for breakfast. Maybe during lunch we'll walk down to..."
"I wanna eat ramen now," she shouted furiously. Kushina caught herself and covered her mouth. Minato's eyes were wide. He had heard his wife yell many times, but never at him, at least not since becoming a couple. "I...I'm sorry, Minato. I didn't mean..."
There was a flash of gold, and the fourth hokage was gone.
Kushina sank her head down onto the table. Hormones were a horrible thing, and during the course of this pregnancy she found herself crying for no reason, like some PMS'ing thirteen-year-old. This time, she had plenty of reasons to sob into her arms.
"Minato," she wept. "Darn it, why am I always like this, dattebane? I don't ever wanna yell at Minato, dattebane. What a horrible mother I'll make."
There was another flash, and Minato stood with a to-go bag from Ichiraku's. "I beg to differ." He set the bag on the table, then grabbed Kushina around from behind, hugging around her pregnant belly and nuzzling into her red hair that he loved so much. "You are going to make the most loving and caring mother in the whole world, and we both will be the proudest parents Konoha has ever seen. This boy...Naruto," he smiled, testing out the name they had only recently chosen, "...will be blessed, because he'll have the prettiest mother in the whole school."
She sneaked a playful glare back at him. "Only the prettiest in the school, huh?"
"Well," he laughed lightly, "if he were to know the truth—that your beauty is renown in all five nations—then Naruto will grow up to be just plain cocky, and we can't have that. We'll let him think you're only the prettiest mother amongst his peers."
"Oh Minato," she giggled, leaning back into his comforting chest. Her hand suddenly went to her belly. "He must be hungry. He's kicking like crazy." Then her stomach let out a loud, demanding growl. "Mama's hungry, too!"
Minato went back around to the bag and pulled out the bowl he brought. "I really do spoil you."
"I know," Kushina grinned proudly. "Now gimme! I want ramen, dattebane!"
Minato laughed as Kushina snapped her chopsticks apart and began to dig in immediately. "I bet Naruto grows up to have your love for ramen."
"I hope he doesn't," Kushina said, slurping her noodles. "He should eat healthier food. I'll only cook fresh vegetables, and I'll force him to eat them all, even if he hates them."
"How wonderfully you cook, who could hate anything you make?" Minato gave her a kiss on the head, but Kushina was now hunched over her bowl and devouring the ramen as if she had not eaten all week. "Well, I'll leave you and your ramen alone. I don't suppose you have any other food cravings you want."
"Nope, I'm...good..." Her face suddenly went green. "No good!" She leaped up and ran to the bathroom. Just as what happened every morning, she vomited the noodles, pork, and negi back up. "Oh yuck, ramen tastes disgusting coming back up. I think I have a noodle stuck in my sinuses."
Minato sighed as he heard her snorting her nose. "That's why the doctor said no ramen for breakfast."
He really should scold her more than an I-told-you-so, but he felt sorry for her. This pregnancy wasn't easy, and he knew the worst was yet to come. She was a brave woman to handle it as well as she did, and he loved her more and more every day for her sacrifice in order to bring life to their child. He went to the bathroom, helped her to clean up, then eased her slowly back over to the table. To his surprise, she began eating the ramen as if nothing had happened.
"Didn't you learn your lesson?"
"Nope. Even more hungry now," she grumbled, hunched over the bowl and eating with even more vigor.
Minato laughed and gave her red hair a kiss. "Whatever am I going to do with you, dear?"
"Love me and let me eat ramen," she answered instantly.
He shook his head at her whimsical attitude. "I pity our son's future food tastes."
The End