DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO.
Summary: AU. After the war, three friends were found by the shrine where Naruto was residing. Nobody can see Naruto, he is a guardian that looks after the ninjas in Konoha and has taken an interest in one of the orphans, Sarada. (AU!Guardians!Ninjas!Ecchi!)
Bold letters means it's Naruto speaking and he's invisible.
Italic letters mean it's thoughts of whoever is speaking, you'll know.
THE RAMEN GUARDIAN: AFTER THE WAR
"Boruto! Sarada! Get up it's time for breakfast!" Sakura shouts but still there was no respond from the two upstairs. Sakura is the woman who handles and manages the orphanage where the orphans of the war are staying.
"Maybe Boruto snuck out last night again and got himself in trouble." Shikadai tried to guess.
"Yes but Sarada though..."
"I'll go check on them."
Shikadai is Boruto's best friend. The two met each other at the war and survived together with Sarada until they were rescued and found at the Konoha Shrine. Shikadai went upstairs to knock some sense into his two friends, he didn't want to make Sakura worry, since she's been like a mother to them. Seeing the empty and untouched futons, he figured they either left together last night or left earlier than anyone else did.
What a drag...
The two missing children were actually running around the shrines that morning, stealing ramen offered to the ramen guardian and other food offerings in there. The two were laughing as they gathered on top of the gate and ate everything they stole together, not knowing someone unseen was watching them.
Ah it's these two again... stealing my meal.
He made a leap to join the two and observed the piles of food they stole. He spotted the empty bowls where the ramen offerings for him used to be. He sighed and sat beside Sarada.
Give me a break you two, at least leave me ONE meal. That'd be enough.
Naruto knew that they can't hear or see him. So he just in boredom and listened to their conversations. It was part of his job to look after them anyway. As a guardian of the village. But he was irritated that as the guardian's village, he only receives one ramen offering a every three days and these two little runts were stealing it.
"We can run away from home without having to worry about food ever again!" Boruto exclaimed as he chewed on a dango.
"Tell me about it." Sarada agreed. "But I hoped we brought Shikadai with us."
"Are you kidding? He'd rat us out before we could even leave the door!" Boruto reminded her and she knew he had a point. Shikadai was one who doesn't like getting into trouble, simply because he's one lazy kid.
The two kept quiet and ate in silence for a moment.
Shikadai? Oh you mean the kid you were with last year! Oh wait, was that last year? Man, I can't really keep track of time here.
Naruto scratched the back of his head and noticed the silence was getting awkward. Until Boruto stopped eating and spoke.
"I wish we can go back to the way it was." he muttered sadly. "When it was just us three."
"I wish the war never happened. That way we can be with our family." Sarada says but Boruto didn't seem to agree with her. "Don't you miss your family?" she wondered. Shikadai and her would talk about it but Boruto doesn't want to.
"I do but I don't even remember them. The only family I remember is you and Shikadai." he said with a sad tone.
Sarada wanted to apologize for even bringing it up and to do that, she started to eat as much food as she can. "Well if you're gonna sulk all day then I'll have everything for myself!"
"W- Wait you cheater!" Boruto fell for it but he knew it was Sarada's way of saying she's sorry, please don't sulk.
The two laughed and Naruto smiled at them. He's been close to these kids ever since they hid in the shrine at the time of the war. He protected them like they were his own children.
I missed you guys too. Although at those times we'd share the food, you know? He chuckled, now remembering Shikadai was the one who was telling them to save some food offerings for the guardians. I'm glad that even in short reunions like this, I get to see you kids grow up.
Naruto got up and patted the two in the head while they eat, leaving them while he do his job.
Boruto swings his fist in the air but passed by Naruto's hand. Sarada stared at him in wonder. "I felt something touch me earlier." Boruto justified.
"It must be Shikadai and his shadow techniques again." Sarada tried to guess but Boruto shook his head, shivering at the assumption in his head. "What? You think it's something else?"
"It felt almost like a ghost." he whispered.
"F- For real? In a shrine?"
"Yeah."
Sarada snickered and squinted her eyes at Boruto. "Maybe that's your parents saying, 'don't you miss us son?'" she teased and Boruto threw the empty bowl at her. She dodged effortlessly though. "It's the same warmth from them, isn't it?" she continued to tease.
"That's not even funny!" Boruto shouts at her.
"BORUTO! SARADA!" they heard a very angry scream from below. They recognized that voice and they gulped.
They looked down seeing an angry Sakura with furrowed brows and a very powerful yet scary aura coming from her. The bowl that Boruto threw was on top of her head like a hat. They'd like to laugh but their situation wasn't a laughing matter.
The two ended up smacked and spanked and grounded the whole week. Now they were washing the dishes after dinner.
Shikadai was watching over them, lying comfortably on the couch, reading this morning's newspaper.
"Hey Shikadai, help us out at least!" Boruto calls at him while he washes the dishes and Sarada wiping the ones he finished. But Shikadai pretended not to hear him as he flipped a page. "That jerk..."
"Well it was our fault." Sarada admitted.
"But as a friend, he should be helping us!" Boruto justified.
The two felt a gentle hand chop on their heads and they look behind them to see Shikadai with his serious expression. He only had three expressions as they've noticed. A bored expression, a serious one and a sleepy one. That sums him up.
"Do you two have any idea how Ms. Sakura was worried about you two?" he began his speech. They were expecting it nonetheless. "Who's idea was it to sneak out at night and steal more food offerings? Well, I doubt it was Sarada, so..." he turns to Boruto who glared at him.
"Why are you-?!"
"We didn't sneak out last night. We left early this morning." Sarada corrected him. She didn't want them to fight, knowing that Boruto's wish earlier was for things to go back to the way they were. "Although we left a note somewhere."
"I think I forgot to write it." Boruto remembered.
"You idiot!" Sarada scolds him.
Shikadai sighed. Finally realizing that the two haven't gotten over the past yet. So he'll break the news to them. "Things aren't the same anymore. We're no longer street children and we don't live in the shrines. So stop stealing the food offerings from the guardians and start helping here. This is our home now. They are our family." Sarada knew that but Boruto...
Boruto grabbed Shikadai by his shirt with an angry stare. "How could you easily forget everything?!"
"I didn't."
"Then why are you acting like this?!"
"Because I'm not a kid anymore!"
Sarada was now more worried with the tension building up between them. Shikadai was calmed and composed while Boruto was shaking in anger. He released Shikadai's shirt and bolted towards the door. Muttering curses at Shikadai and everything else.
"Boruto!"
"Let him grow up, Sarada. Otherwise he'll never learn." Shikadai tells her and she stopped halfway in chasing him through the door.
Spinning around to face Shikadai, she didn't notice her eyes had activated something. "Still, you shouldn't be so harsh on him! Unlike us, we're the only family he's got! We're literally still kids and he wants to make more memories with us!"
With that Sarada always ran and Shikadai was left sighing.
I know that but... ah... this really is a drag.
Boruto was running back to the shrine but going deeper in the forest, not knowing where to go but wants to hide where no one will find him. Stupid Shikadai! Stupid Shikadai! It's okay, I still have Sarada, she won't ever leave me, will she? But earlier... she was also thinking about her family... DARN IT!
I hate them! I hate them both!
While running and cursing, tears began to pour down his eyes, blurring his sight. And as he wiped it, he missed the large-shaped root below that caused him to trip, his body taken in by the momentum of his run and he flew crashing towards a certain opened coffin where a mummy was.
His lips tasted the rotten taste of the corpse and he immediately coughed and spits at the mummy.
"GAH!" he jumps out of the coffin and searches for the cover. He looks back at the coffin seeing that the cover was attached and lifted up.
The boy's instinct told him to close the coffin. And so he made a leap to close it but the moment the coffin was halfway closed, a hand from the inside stopped him from closing it. Boruto used up all his strength to try and close it, the force from inside was resisting though.
"The heck is this! I didn't kiss no princess so go back to sleep in your grave!" he shouts and with every ounce of strength he had, he pushed the coffin shut.
He waited for anymore resistance but there was nothing so he sighed in relief and leaned on the coffin to rest. It was a close call. The heck was that?! It was freakin' creepy! He shivered just thinking about it, not knowing that while the coffin was close, the same arm from earlier passed through the wooden cover and the person inside emerged from there.
Well, that was quite a wake up call.
The man spoke and Boruto froze in fear. Slowly lifting his face up to see the face of the person he tried to lock in, upside down.
You must be the kid who awakened me.
To be continued, I hope to hear from you guys.
And this is a Rated M fic... in the future so beware.
