Disclaimer: The characters in this fic are Masashi Kishimoto's except for Ayako

A/N: Sorry for the lateness, I have had many pages of text ready for a long time, but I never had the time to type it to computer. Nevertheless, hope you don't find this chapter too confusing.

Notes: I have no idea how ramen is made, I've seen it only once but it was different kinda ramen than what they serve in Ichiraku so I'm making it all up.

And the young Team 7 doesn't recognize Sasuke easily because he has matured and looks more like Itachi, he is sick so he looks kinda dead and now as Hiroshi he tries to smile so he looks like Sai. But let's see what will happen…

Next chapter will continue from where this left off. I cut it because it was becoming so long and I'm already quite late with my update.

Second chapter – Why had he said that?

"C'mon, Sasuke. Do you wanna miss all the fun?" Naruto moans and pulls Sasuke's hand.

"Yes, if it includes ramen."

Sakura sighs as Naruto gasps in a dramatic way. "Sasuke, usually I'm on your side about going to Ichiraku, but today I'd like some ramen too."

"Yeah, Sakura, way to go girl!" Naruto yells.

"You just want to go there 'cause Ayako might know some rumours about that earlier guy…" Kakashi mumbles to his book.

"And gosh; did I hear right? Kakashi just offered to pay for all the ramen we eat", Sakura says, way too happily and girly to be normal. "Right, sensei?" she turns to Kakashi, mad glint in her eyes.

"Is that true, sensei?" Sai asks, smiling at Kakashi scarily.

"I… uh – well, maybe… But don't eat much!" Kakashi stutters before Naruto 'wohoo's and drags Sasuke to his favourite ramen stand with incredible speed.

Once Sakura, Sai and Kakashi catch up to Naruto and Sasuke with their normal pace, Naruto had already ordered and is having an onesided conversation with Sasuke.

"Hi", he smiles to them as they take their seat. "I ordered for you too: two misos, one pork, chicken and shrimp 'cause I'm not sure what you like the best. I'll just take what's last 'cause I like them all."

"What's for Sasuke?" Sakura asks.

"He said 'whatever' so he'll just have to take the other left last", Naruto says, sticking out his tongue to Sasuke.

"I don't even like ramen", Sasuke says under his breath.

"But you gotta eat something! And you haven't even tried ramen enough times to know if you like it or not."

"And what do you think is 'enough'…?"

"Your orders, mister."

Naruto turns on his stool to thank, but instead he howls 'you' whihle pointing at the man holding a tray full of ramen cups.

The man with a scarf hiding all his hair, the one they had met earlier looks at Naruto, licking his dry lips quickly. "Hello."

"I didn't know you worked here", Naruto says, a bit upset for not knowing everything there was going on in Ichiraku.

"I only started today", the man answers and puts the tray to the table. "Who will have the shrimp ramen?"

"Me", Kakashi says, raising his hand lazily to catch the man's attention.

"And misos?" the man asks as he serves Kakashi his bowl.

"Another's for me", Sakura says, blushing slightly as the man smiles to her.

"I'll take the another", Sai smiles his usual fake smile at the man.

The man looks at him for a moment before he smiles too, looking like a worn out Sai. "Don't fake your smile in front of me", he says softly. He places the last bowls in front of Naruto and Sasuke. "Chicken for the white boy. Switch if you wish." Then he disappears behind the curtain that separates the kitchen and the customers' area.

Sakura sighs dreamily. "He is so handsome. And saw right through Sai so he must be intelligent too."

"Seeing through me is a mark of intelligence?" Sai asks, still smiling. "I have to write that down."

"Weren't you swearing Sasuke's the only one for you just a few years back?" Naruto asks with his mouth full of ramen.

Sakura blushes furiously. "That was way back. Besides, he never even asked me out."

"Hear that, bastard", Naruto claps Sasuke's back. "You're losing your fangirls."

"Looks like I gotta start doing something to keep them…" Sasuke smirks.

"Woah, Hiroshi!" comes Ayako's shriek from behind the curtain. "You okay?"

"Yes…" they hear the man's mumbled answer. "Nothing's broke."

"Ok, that's good." Then Ayako steps out to team 7's view. ""Hi, Naruto. You want seconds?"

"Yes please."

"You're paying it yourself", Kakashi says.

"Hey, no fair. Why you paying for only one portion? I'm still hungry."

"I'm not made of money y'know."

"Well, I'm gonna take another portion anyways. Pork, please."

"I'd want another chicken too, please", Sasuke says, sounding a bit ashamed.

"Oo, you fell for ramen", Ayako laughs. "Way to go, Naruto. I thought he'd never give in."

"I'm just hungry…" Sasuke mutters, blushing only slightly.

"Hey, Ayako", Sakura catches the woman's attention as Naruto keeps on teasing Sasuke. "Do you know that man who works for you?"

"Oh, Hiroshi? Not well, he just started today… But he's real nice guy, though sometimes he seems to fall into his own private world…" Ayako turns to look at Sakura with a suspicious look. "Why do you want to know, anyway?"

"Uh, umh…" Sakura's face turns even redder than her hair.

"Oh, girl", Ayako pats Sakura's houlder. "Sorry to say this, but apparently he's longing for some girl already."

"I don't seem to be very lucky with boys, am I", Sakura sighs.

"You're surrounded by four good looking males", at this Ayako winks, "and you call yourself unlucky?"

"They might be good looking, but one's old pervert, one's mind is just a big penis, one's frigid and one's… uh, Naruto." Sakura grins as her teammates glance at her. Ayako smiles to her before she leaves to make the ramen.

"I'm a penis?" Sai asks, looking at Sakura with a surprised look. "What does that mean?"

"Well, it was just some joking…" Sakura starts, then changes her mind and holds another of her chopsticks in front of Sai. "What does this remind you of?"

Sai looks at the chopstick for a moment with his mouth open in the shape of 'o', then he smiles one of his real smiles, the 'I learned something new today' smile. "Penis."

A sudden, short laughter wakes Kakashi up from his 'she called me old' brooding, gets Sakura and Sai's attention and stops Naruto and Sasuke's thumb wrestle match. Just like earlier, it is the young man who had caught their attention, Hiroshi as Ayako had called him.

He is holding back his laughter, grinning widely, blushing only so slightly it gives a very slight tint of rose to his pale, thin cheecks. He has turned his head away from them and the cups of ramen he is holding, and the already setting sun shines upon him, making him glow. His expression looks so happy, every curve of him – his closed eyes, the tiny dimples that look unused - telling of relief and of utter peace, even if for only a short moment. Although Sakura met this man only a few hours earlier, she somehow knows this is something that rarely happens, this smiles, and she knows that whatever excuse he is going to say of why he laughed, it is lie, because there is something so much more to this. And if Sakura hadn't already fallen for him, this time she would have, no matter what.

Then the moment is gone and Hiroshi opens his eyes, looks at them all, and licks his lips quickly. "Sorry, you just were so funny I couldn't help laughing…" He places the orders infront of Sasuke and Naruto and leaves to the kitchen but gets pushed back.

"Oy, Hiroshi, introduce yourself to them", Ayako pops up, smiling at him.

Sakura looks at Hiroshi who is in such angle that she sees almost half of his face. And if she sees right, he looks… scared? And could that be anger behind that look?

Then a slight blush tints his cheeks and he looks around as if searching for a way to escape from this situation.

Ayako sighs and turns him around with force, showing his slightly panicked face to team 7. "Don't be so shy, they bite only if you pay them."

Ayako's sentence seems to calm him down, and his panicked look gets replaced with a slightly irritated one. "I'm not shy, I'm just… not social."

"Just like this bastard here", Naruto laughs and points at Sasuke brooding next to him. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, number one unpredictable ninja in Konoha. You're gonna see more of me for sure, I practically live in Ichiraku."

"I'm Haruno Sakura, nice to meet you", Sakura says, bowing her head slightly. Hiroshi smiles to her. "This is Sai, and that's Kakashi, our sensei."

"And the bastard?" Hiroshi asks, using the word easily.

"Uchiha Sasuke", Sasuke mutters, lifting his gaze to glare at the man. It seems like Sasuke wants to look right into Hiroshi's eyes, see right through him, but Hiroshi just locks his own gaze somewhere between Sakura and Sai. "And you are?"

"Shiroyama Hiroshi." Hiroshi is still smiling. "You'll be seeing me here for long unless I get fired for day dreaming."

"Never!" Ayako butts in. "I'm quite sure you'll attract girls, and that's more than good for business."

Hiroshi laughs shortly. That laugh alerts Kakashi and his ears perk up as he hears it. It is obviously fake. Kakashi can hear his real, panicked and still somehow eerily calm voice under the careful icing of laugh. It is as if he is forcing himself to continue this conversation with everyone although he would just want to leave for his own peace.

"They will just get disappointed…" Hiroshi smiles slightly as he turns to leave to the kitchen. He locks gazes with Kakashi as he turns, staring at his only visible eye. Kakashi answers with a look that asks 'Who are you?'. Hiroshi's eyes harden. Then the moment is over, and no one had noticed because it hadn't lasted even for a second.

"I'm gonna go now, guys", Kakahi says, standing up. "Here's for the dishes; my treat as I said. Bye!" With that he is gone, leaving behind only a small whirlwind of leaves.

Ayako counts the money he left at the table. "This is for seven dishes, Naruto", she looks at him. "He really is made of money, then?"

"He's gonna make us pay for it by training", Naruto groans. "And I only ate two dishes. How can he be so cruel?"

"He's not cruel, he just want's to keep us fit", Sakura says and stands up. "Anyways, I'm leaving too."

"Already?"

"I'll teach Sai some manners." Sai smiles at the sound of his name. "So we gotta leave for the library to find some books for him."

"Guess I could leave too…" Naruto and Sasuke stand up at the same time. "Bye then, Ayako. See ya next time."

"Bye."

Sasuke is sitting on a high stool at the small kitchen of Ichiraku, looking at Ayako who is making ramen ready for her 'best ever customer', Naruto. She has been telling 'Hiroshi' about Naruto practically everything she knows, starting from how he was orphanaged at such young age to the story of how he had dragged 'that Uchiha beauty' back to Konoha.

Sasuke had listened to it gladly. It had calmed him down as he was about to give up and yell everyone who he really is, because even if it is quite boring to hear a story twice, when it is about Naruto it would never cease to interest him. And Ayako gave the story a point of view that Sasuke could have never heard otherwise. She is a villager who – unlike many others – didn't loathe Naruto because of Kyuubi. Yet she wasn't like Iruka who knew about Naruto's life as a ninja and what kind of missions he had gone through. She was someone who knew only Naruto's civil side – besides the stories Naruto had told her, but they were always positive – so she gave Sasuke a fresh breeze of how Naruto can be so sunny although nowadays missions tend to get him quiet.

"Oy, Ayako, old man! Anyone there?"

Sasuke startles at the sudden yell, turning paler if it is even possible. He hugs his knees to the point of crushing, just to prevent himself from yelling back 'shut up, dead last', with a slightly annoyed voice.

"Shut up, moron."

Sasuke's breath gets caught up in his throat. He puts his head to his knees and hugs them even more forcefully until he feels like he can never walk again.

He had said it, not him. Sasuke had nothing to worry about. No one had yet revealed him, not even looked at him twice… Not that anyone had even seen him yet. He had just been hiding in Ichiraku's kitchen, listgening to Ayako's stories and waited for something to happen. Now something had, but Sasuke doesn't know what to do now. Should he put his plan into action and just step in to their view, smiling softly, saying: 'Hi, I'm Hiroshi, new here…'

"Oy, Hiroshi", Ayako taps him as she comes back to the kitchen with Naruto and Sasuke's orders. "Make two misos and one shrimp."

Sasuke lifts his head and steps slowly down from his stool – it is actually a combination of a stool and ladder – hoping he doesn't look scared and shaky anymore. "Three portions? I thought there were only two…" He has no other possibility now than play Hiroshi until he would get caught or reveal himself.

"Their teammates are coming soon. And anyways, the blonde is Naruto, remember him?" 'How could I not?' "He always orders at least two portions, no matter what. Never seen him eat just one."

'I have.' Sasuke smiles as Ayako changes the topic to her fiancé. Ayako's father was working all alone that evening when Sasuke and Naruto had come to Ichiraku after a late training. They had practicesd only taijutsu that evening and they were hungry and sweaty and tired that evening. They had been walking past Ichiraku to their homes when Naruto's stomach had grumbled loudly.

'Man, I've got no money with me…' Naruto had said, touching his stomach as if to tell it to keep quiet. 'I hope I've got some food left at home…'

Sasuke had looked at Naruto, then he had grabbed his hand and dragged him to Ichiraku, ignoring his loud questions.

Then Sasuke had ordered a bowl of miso ramen, and as it came, he had shoved it in front of Naruto and had said; 'eat'.

Naruto had looked at the ramen, then had looked at Sasuke, clearly wanting the ramen, but he hadn't even touched it, instead he had said: '"Sasu – '

"It's a small payback for everything you've done for me, okay? Shut up and eat.' And Naruto had smiled brightly to him.

"Hiroshi, you're serving them alright", Ayako calls from where ever she is making her part of the orders. "Hiroshi, you hear me?"

"Yes", Sasuke answers. "And I'm almost done soon."

"Me too. Could you get five bowls, they are on the shelf on your right…"

Sasuke opens the cupboarde on his right side, taking out five bowls, all the while keeping on eye on the boiling noodles.

Ayako pours the hot noodles to their own cups as Sasuke is trying to find a tray where he could fit the bowls.

"Check the lower cupboard if you're looking for a tray", Ayako advices him.

Sasuke kneels and opens the door, seeing a pile of trays right there wating for him. "Found them."

As Sasuke stands up and turns around to put the bowls to the tray, asking Ayako what is what shile doing so, he smiles. He could get used to this.

"But you gotta eat something!" Naruto's yell is heard behind the curtain. Sasuke gives a quick glance there just like Ayako as Naruto keeps on talking.

'If they didn't recognize me earlier, they won't recognize me now.' Sasuke takes the tray, a cool expression on his face. He feels nothing like that inside, though. 'And I don't even look like him anymore… more like Sai and Itachi, just like Sakura said…' He leaves the kitchen just in time to hear him say: " – think is enough?"

"Your orders, mister", Sasuke says with flawlessly normal tone, except that it sounds too normal to be real.

Naruto turns to look at him, and his eyes widen. "You!" he yells and his yell echoes in Sasuke''s ears for a long time and he almost thinks Naruto had recognized him. But no, he hadn't, because then he wouldn't have yelled 'you' but rather stared at him in disbelief. 'Looks like love doesn't conquire all', Sasuke thinks rather exhaustedly and licks his dry lips. 'Especially when it's onesided…' "Hello."

"I didn't know you worked here", Naruto says, and his clear blue eyes and smooth voice tell Sasuke that he is upset of this.

Sasuke rips his eyes away from Naruto and puts the tray to the table to prevent it from falling off of his shaking hands. He had done this all only to find out if Naruto had ever even thought of him in more than friendly way, but his start doesn't look so good. He had only made Naruto upset and made his own calmness shatter. "I only started today", Sasuke says, hoping that would make Naruto's smile come back quickly. And from the corner of his eyes he sees it did. "Who will have shrimp ramen?" 'I bet it's either Sai or Kakashi.'

Kakashi raises his hand in his all too lazy and familiar way. "Me."

Sasuke gives him his bowl, moving quickly onto the bowls of misos to not look at him. Sakura blushes as Sasuke gives her her serving. 'Her inner fangirlness has caught me', Sauke laughs in his mind and looks at Sai before serving him. "Don't fake your smile in front of me." Then he gives the last bowls to Naruto and him. 'Chicken for… him.' "Chicken for the white boy." He looks at Naruto's ear to keep his eyes from looking at him. "Switch if you wish."

Then he turns quickly around, hoping he didn't leave too quickly, and disappaers to the kitchen. As soon as he is there, he lets his head bow, and tries to clear his mind from all tha had happened, that was really nothing much. He had only served them ramen. That was nothing extraordinary, right? There is nothing suspicious doing a waiter's job.

" – so handsome", Sasuke's ears pick up Sakura's quiet words. He smiles. History nevers changes, does it?

"Hiroshi, could you put them clean dishes to their cupborads", Ayako asks. She had come back from Naruto and the others, moving surprisingly quietly. "Bowls and glasses are on the high shelves, almost everything else under them."

"Roger." Work would take his mind off of… anything. He could concentrate on every glass and every bowl as an individual, hold them carefully as he placed them to the right shelves, and then start again…

"Hiroshi, you have a family name?" Ayako suddenly asks, almost making Sasuke drop the bowls he was holding.

"Shiroyama. Why?"

"Just wondering."

"Hear that bastard! You're losing your fangirls." Naruto's voice carries to Sasuke's ears. He tries to pretend it is a new voice to him.

"Looks like I gotta start doing something to keep them…"

The three bowls Sasuke was holding fall from his grip as all power runs away from his hands. His brains feel like they have frozen in the middle of doing something.

Nevertheless, his instincts don't care about what his brains feel like, and like in the middle of a dream, he kneels to the ground and put his hands out for the falling bowls, using chakra in some way to attach them to his hands.

"Woah, Hiroshi! You okay?" he hears Ayako's voice, a bit panicked maybe. Sasuke doesn't know and he doesn't care. He is still in a state of shock when he puts the bowls carefully to the ground.

"Yes. Nothing is broke", he answers, staring at the clean dishes in front of him.

"Ok, that's good", Ayako says, looking at Sasuke's back in a thoughtful way, but Sasuke doesn't see it. Of course not, because no matter how much of a ninja he is, even with the Sharingan, he does not have even a single eye on his back. And Ayako leaves, giving him a long glance, and like earlier, Sasuke doesn't know she did so and even if he did he would not care.

What had he said? Looks like I gotta start doing something to keep them… Keep his fangirls. Why had he said that? Sasuke would have never said things like that. Fangirls were a taboo to him, he had learned to talk about them in quite the normal way only a year back. Why had he said that? Sasuke was not the one to be joking at that age. He shouldn't have said that.

But maybe Sasuke is wrong again. He hadn't been able to understand his gaze before, so why should he be able to predict how he acts.

Except that he should. He has already gone through the acts and happening and feelings that only lie ahead of him. Sasuke should know in what way his thoughts move. He couldn't have forgotten it all, could he?

Sasuke turns his head slightly to hear his voice. He can't make out the words, but he sounds embarrassed.

Sasuke is still kneeling on the floor, staring at the bowls he had saved from utter demolition. He takes the bowls to his hold and stands up, continuing what he had been doing earlier.

'Why am I even worked up over what he said?' Because he should know what he thinks, because they are the same person. 'Or are we? Maybe our paths divided the moment I ended up here, and all the time he is drifting away from me…' That thought scares Sasuke. That by somehow ending up in the past he would be changing himself so much they couldn't even be called the same person anymore.

That brings Sasuke to the questions that have been lurking in his mind ever since the realized just what the hell is going on. Why is he here? How did he end up here? How can he get back?

'Right now it would be wisest to think this is all just a dream made up by my feverish brain. To keep me sane. But to keep my cover and everyone else sane I should think of this as a mission.'

"Hiroshi, one chicken and one pork."

"Roger."

Sasuke takes out two bowls and waits as the ramen gets ready, which takes only a short moment. To Sasuke's unhappiness, because he really doesn't feel like seeing him or any of those others now. But a job is a job, and he really doesn't want to raise any more of Ayako's curiosity by refusing to serve them. Who did order these anyway? Naruto of course, but could the other -

"They're for Naruto and that grumpy pretty boy", Ayako says offhandly as Sasuke takes the bowls. Seriously, can she read minds?

Sasuke steps out behind the curtain and stops right there to look at the view infront of him. There is Kakashi, leaning against the table, apparently brooding over something. Sakura and Sai are sitting next to him, Sakura holding a chopstick infront of a surprised Sai. And Naruto and him are having a moment of thumb wrestling.

"Penis", Sai says happily and smiles.

And Sasuke can only laugh. It is short, but is comes from the bottom of his heart and turns him mouth into a wide smile that is definitely a rare event and it relieves his heart.

They had acted just like they should. No talking of fangirls that should still be a taboo, no glaring at him with messages that were left understood.

But somehow Sasuke knows it is not going to continue like this, that this was only a moment that happens once in a thousand years if even then. And he knows that he had ruined it by coming, by laughing, and that when he is going to open his eyes and let his grin fade away and replace it with a fake smile that is on Hiroshi's face almost constantly, then he would see something that he definitely wouldn't like.

And he opens his eyes and licks his dry lips quickly to make them move, to form a small smile to bounce all suspects away. He lets his gaze sweep them all, or atleast look like it, because really his eyes had only registered Sakura and his faces.

Sakura had a small blush on her face and a look that Sasuke knew all too well. It was the look she had been giving to Sasuke ever since she had first seen him.

And his face looked too much the same.