Summary: Naruto's been quiet lately. Maybe Ramen can snap him out of it.
A/N- This is kind of a random idea I had a couple days ago. The title isn't exactly to do with the story, but it kind of fits too.
Disclaimer- If I owned Naruto, I would never have created Sasuke. Because Naruto is so much cooler than Sasuke.
(o.o.o)
The question came on a Thursday. He knew and remembered later because they'd stopped at a Ramen stand for lunch and he'd complained that they'd come too early for the Friday special. Naruto had just shrugged and said that there was nothing stopping them from coming back tomorrow. Jiraiya had plopped disappointed into his seat. The complaint had just been the latest in a long line of failed attempts to snap Naruto out of the perpetual silence he had fallen into several days earlier. It was beginning to unnerve him, because he couldn't help but wonder if his apprentice was contemplating how best to kill him in his sleep.
They ordered their Ramen and ate in silence; Naruto didn't even react when the cook, proclaiming him to be adorable, had given him a far larger helping than his teacher.
It was some time later, when Jiraiya was down to the broken dreg noodles at the bottom of the bowl, that he asked.
"You were the Fourth Hokage's teacher, right?"
The question was so sudden, so unexpected and out of nowhere, that Jiraiya paused with his chopsticks halfway to his mouth, the small dreg noodles slipping unnoticed one at a time to fall with a plop into the broth below. He just stared at Naruto for some time, while Naruto stared silently at his untouched bowl of Ramen.
This was a bad sign. Naruto never left Ramen untouched. Once, when Jiraiya had mentioned that he would start teaching him a new move that day, he'd gotten excited and run off, leaving behind a half-eaten bowl of Ramen only to return several seconds later and shove the complete contents of the bowl into his mouth and run off again. He'd only gone two steps before he started to choke and Jiraiya had to use the Heimlich on him.
As he recovered over another bowl of Ramen, Jiraiya had teased him, saying that wouldn't it be a shame if he'd survived the likes of Orochimaru and Gaara only to be killed by his favorite food?
Now though, his Ramen sat getting cold as he awaited an answer to his query.
"Yeah, I was," Jiraiya said. "In fact, of all the students I've ever had, he's always been by far my favorite."
This new attempt didn't work in the slightest; the blonde just nodded and finally turned to the old sage.
"What was he like? I mean, what was it about him that made him so great?"
Jiraiya looked away, suddenly silent himself. How did he communicate what his former pupil had meant to him, what he'd meant to the village? How did he tell this boy, this boy who was Minato's son, was his godson, why his hero was regarded as the greatest ninja to ever come out of Konohagakure?
"You see, Naruto, it had nothing to do with how strong he was, he was strong, but he was great because he… well…" He sighed, trying to decide how to explain. "Naruto, have you ever known someone who you just felt like, as long as that person was there, was with you, everything would be all right?
"No… Well… Yeah." He picked up his chopsticks and jabbed at his Ramen. "It was a long time ago, I must have just been a baby because nothing's very clear, but I do remember that… I was in pain. It felt like someone was taking a bunch of needles and shoving them into every cell in my body at once. You know what I mean?"
"Not from experience, no."
He continued as if Jiraiya hadn't spoke. "Anyway, this person, I guess it was my father, picked me up. In his arms I felt all comfortable and safe, and the pain just went away. It was like, like if I stayed there and this man kept holding me, like everything would be ok, and nothing bad could ever happen to me no matter what." He fell silent.
"And then?" Jiraiya prompted.
"And then nothing. That's all I can remember." He looked at Jiraiya. "But you know what, Pervy-Sage? Sometimes…" He suddenly fell silent again. Jiraiya could tell that whatever he was about to say, he had never said to anyone before, not even Kakashi or that Iruka guy he said he told everything. He turned back to his Ramen. "Sometimes when I'm in a fight, and it seems like I might lose, I get that feeling again, and I know everything is gonna be okay, even if I lose. I feel like he's watching over me, even if he's dead."
"Huh… Well, anyway, that's what it was like with the Fourth. He made people feel like they could do anything. He gave them hope. That's what made him great. Does that answer your question?"
"Yeah. Yeah, it does." He fell silent again, then, "Hey Pervy-Sage? Do you think he would have liked me?"
He was looking pointedly in the opposite direction as he said this. Jiraiya could tell that this was the question that he had been leading up to, the reason he had been silent all week.
"Naruto…"
He watched his apprentice, the boy who had at some point between begging to learn amazing new jutsu and alternately praising and insulting Sasuke, between eating so much Ramen that Jiraiya wondered that he didn't turn into a giant noodle and talking about Sakura and Iruka and Konohamaru and all his other friends from the village had become the center of Jiraiya's world, whose goals had become his goals and whose life he had taken upon himself to save, this boy who had the biggest heart of anyone he'd ever met despite every attempt the village made otherwise, and he couldn't help but think that this was a boy any man would have been proud to call son. He grinned and ruffled Naruto's hair in the way he knew annoyed him.
"Yes, Naruto, I think he would have loved you." He glanced at the bowl of Ramen. "You gonna eat that, or can I have it?"
It was almost as if he had flipped a switch. Naruto stopped being quiet and grabbed his bowl of Ramen. Between bites he complained loudly about teachers who picked favorites, just like how Kakashi always picked on Sasuke, and didn't he know that's why some students didn't meet their full potential?
Jiraiya smiled. He would never admit it, not in a hundred years, even under pain of death, but no matter how much he complained about Naruto being loudmouthed and hyper, he preferred him that way to quiet and thoughtful any day of the week- even Thursday.
(o.o.o)
A/N- I wanted that story to be serious, but it really turned out to be funny, now didn't it? Anyway, I think that if Jiraiya had bothered before to tell Naruto that Minato is his dad, Naruto probably wouldn't be all wondering if the Fourth would have liked him or not. Alls I can say is, when Jiraiya finally gets around to telling him, he better have a dang good reason for keeping it from him that long, and for leaving him alone even though his duties as Naruto's godfather would involve him sticking around.
I actually do have my theories as to his reasons, but if you want to know them you have to pm me and ask. They're too many and numerous to put here.
Snap- Many and numerous? Isn't that a bit redundant, not to mention repetitive?
Bubbles- I'm stressing my point. What are you doing here anyway?
Snap- (counting) You know that sentence up there is nine lines long.
Bubbles- I know.
Snap- You should shorten it.
Bubbles- I tried. It doesn't work any other way.
Dreg noodles are those noodles that get all broken and buried at the bottom of the bowl. They're the hardest ones to eat simply because they have a hard time staying on the chopsticks.