Chapter 3 – Measure Twice, Cut Once

No Ramen, No Life.

To most people this may sound like a silly statement and they wouldn't be completely wrong to believe that. After all, how could someone possibly attribute the meaning of existence to a bowl of salty noodles and broth? Sure, it could be an amazing bowl of ramen, but it'd still be, you know… a bowl of ramen.

Naruto was not like most people.

His love for all things noodly was something you could always count on. A universal truth that literally transcended time and space. Ramen wasn't a simple food item for him, it was so much more than that. Several described his obsession as unhealthy, childish or straightforwardly disgusting and, while at first Naruto tried to change their minds, after a couple of decades he simply decided to let them be and enjoy his ramen in peace.

He realised that they didn't understand what ramen meant to him. They didn't know what was the history behind it. So, they couldn't possibly comprehend why he was so obsessed with this particular meal.

Ramen was what Teuchi-jiji gave to him when he first entered in his shop. Instead of throwing him out, like any other villager did before him, the owner of Ichiraku Ramen welcomed him with a warm smile on his face and a steaming, free bowl of noodly goodness in his hand.

Ramen was what Iruka-sensei offered him when he finally accepted him as his student. No longer seeing him as the jinchūriki of the Kyūbi but as an orphan who, just like himself, thrived to be acknowledged.

Ramen was what he shared with Team 7, both old and new, and the rest of the Konoha 12 between missions. Even if they were all busy with their duties as shinobi, they still found the time to share a bowl of ramen to catch up and talk with one another.

And most importantly, ramen was the food his family loved. Naruto considered himself lucky to have found a loving wife who, not only accepted his addiction, but shared it with him. How Hinata was able to beat him at every ramen contest still eluded him, especially considering it wasn't even her favourite food – that spot was reserved for cinnamon rolls. Even their two amazing children weren't that different. He remembered very well the day Boruto and Himawari ate their first strands of noodles all by themselves. He never felt so proud.

Naruto's memories of his friends, family and loved ones were all related to ramen somehow and now, even after centuries had passed, he still smiled warmly when he recollected those moments while he ate his favourite food. And why shouldn't he? He lived a fulfilling life with no regrets. He married the love of his life and stayed by her side until the very end. He became the leader of his village and brought true peace to his world. And he saw his kids grow up and start families of their own, followed by several generations of Uzumaki.

It hadn't been always like this, at first the loneliness was almost unbearable sometimes, but then he remembered something important. Just because his precious people were no longer with him, it didn't mean that they were truly gone. Only if he discarded their feelings and memories he would really abandon them. It was a lesson that Hinata taught him… in the middle of the war… by slapping him in the face. In hindsight, he kind of deserved that and he loved reminding her that episode to see her blushing and stuttering. She was just so adorable when she was embarrassed.

Besides, when Naruto found out about his immortality, Hinata made him promise to stay the same man she fell in love with – an unpredictable, goofy, compassionate, strongminded, outgoing, wonderful human being. Her words not his. Well, maybe Naruto added just a couple of adjectives but just a few. Lack of modesty aside, Uzumaki Naruto never broke a promise and never went back on his word. After all, that was his nindō, his ninja way.

So, it shouldn't be surprising that looking for a good ramen shop was the first thing Naruto did when he arrived into this world. He already knew ramen existed here, he wouldn't have chosen this world otherwise. A world without ramen was a world not worth living in. His quest to find the perfect bowl of noodles brought him to Japan, a nation with a culture closely resembling the one from his own world. Far and wide he travelled across the archipelago, tasting hundreds of different types of ramen, and finally he found what he was looking for in the city of Hanamura.

Rikimaru Ramen Shop.

A simple food joint which, besides serving ramen, had a toad as a mascot. A toad. At least it looked like a toad to him, a really creepy one. A restaurant that had his favourite animal on its logo and served his favourite food. Naruto couldn't have asked for something better. However, ramen and a quite disturbing amphibian wasn't the only thing he found at the food joint. There he found something else, or better, someone else.

"… and then he told me that the elders disapproved of me, that my juvenile behaviour was unacceptable and a disgrace for our clan and that I should be more like him when he was my age. Can you believe that? I should be more like him?! Sure, if I wanted to be an arrogant, snobbish, full of myself… hey! Are you even listening to me?"

Naruto hummed as he swallowed a mouthful of ramen and promptly summarised what he had just heard, "You snuck out. They found out. Stuck-up older brother scolded you. Now tell me Genji-kun, do you know what you did wrong?"

Genji, a fourteen years old boy wearing black sneakers, a white t-shirt and shorts under an amazing – for Naruto – orange sleeveless hoodie, scratched his head and responded in an unsure voice, "I… let myself get caught?"

"Correct, my little kōhai," Naruto said sagely, bonking him on the head with his chopsticks as he finished his meal. "If you want to break the rules, do it properly or not at all. You want to be a ninja, right? Think of it as training. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Learn from them and try again. Remember: if you do not enter a toad's pond, you will not catch its tadpoles."

Genji scrunched up his face in confusion. Wasn't the saying about a tiger's cave and its cub? Shaking his head, he retrieved his own chopsticks. Naruto always had a strange fixation with toads. "And about Hanzo-niisan? He's always bugging me to be just like him. Just because he's going to be the next head of the clan, it doesn't mean I have to become his second in command. He told me that I'll have to attend the elders' meetings from now on. Be a more active member of the family. My life doesn't revolve around the clan. Honestly, the less I have to do with it the better."

Naruto looked at Genji's downcast expression from the corner of his eye and waited patiently for the boy to continue. Family was always a difficult subject for him to talk about, especially considering his family was an international criminal organisation involved in assassinations and illicit trafficking in weapons and drugs.

"They think I'm too young to notice, but I saw how people treat us. Hanzo-niisan talks about honour and respect. People don't respect us. They fear us," Genji said tightening his grip on his chopsticks. "Whenever someone finds out I'm a Shimada their behaviour changes completely. It's not right. I don't want to be a part of something like that, even if it's my own family."

"That's a rather bold claim to make, you know. Your clan definitely won't approve." Just as his shoulders slumped, Genji felt a hand tousling his spiky dyed green hair affectionately. Looking up, he saw Naruto smiling broadly at him. "Thankfully, I'm nothing like your clan. You got guts gaki and if there's one thing I'm sure of is that a ninja needs a lot of guts. As long as you follow your instinct you'll be fine and if you're in trouble remember that I'm here. Okay?"

"Of course I've got guts." After fixing his hair, Genji picked the noodles up off his bowl. All the previous tension gone from his face, replaced by a cocky smirk as he loudly declared, "And I'll even be a better ninja than you! You'll see, ojisan!"

Naruto opened his mouth to respond, but his cell phone stopped him as it started to ring. Recognising the number on the screen, he pressed a button and brought the phone to his ear as Genji ate his ramen with a smug grin on his face. "Buonjour Gérard, what've you got for me? I hope it's something important. It's my ramen time and you know how important it is to me," he said in a mock serious tone while Genji snickered next to him.

"Are you sure?" Naruto's smile dropped, a rare serious expression on his face. "That's exactly what I was afraid of. No, thank you Gérard. You did the right thing by warning me. You did a good job and for the last time, you don't need to calm me sir. Just Naruto it's fine."

Dropping enough yen on the counter to pay both of their meals, Naruto stood up, dusted off his trench coat and ruffled Genji's hair once again. "I have to go now, gaki. I'll probably be busy for a couple of days but if you need anything call me, alright? And if the elders are bothering you too much, then I'll show you what you can do with a dozen of hot dogs and some wire strings." Smiling at the confused but strangely intrigued expression on Genji's face, the two ramen lovers exchanged one last goodbye before Naruto exited the food joint. As he walked through the crowded streets of Hanamura, no one noticed when the blond vanished into thin air, leaving no trace behind.

x-x-x-x-x

When the UN established Overwatch as an international peacekeeping task force after the Omnic Crisis, one issue immediately arose: each country wanted to have the headquarters situated in its own territory. While Naruto very much enjoyed the irony of the situation, seeing nations fighting one another over a peacekeeping task force, Gabrielle on the other hand was rightfully so quite frustrated. More than once Naruto had to physically restrain her to stop her from simply bashing several state leaders on the head. It may have been satisfying for a moment, but not worth in the long run.

Now, seeing all the new faces around him as he walked through the halls of the headquarters situated in Switzerland, Naruto felt pride swell in his chest. Overwatch was growing. More and more people were joining the ranks, each of them sharing the same belief that peace was not just a fantasy – an elusive goal you could never manage to reach. But a reality at your fingertips, ready to be grasped.

His civilian clothes earned him a couple of raised eyebrows from the newest members of Overwatch. A man wearing a white dress shirt with rolled up sleeves, blue jeans and, of course, bright orange shoes under a dark grey trench coat was not something that you saw every day strolling through the halls of the Overwatch headquarters. However, what was even more surprising was how every senior agent on his path saluted him with respect. Naruto groaned silently under his breath as he awkwardly waved back. At least they weren't calling him Lord Seventh.

As he entered the room he was looking for, Naruto found himself in a rather peculiar situation. Sitting on one of the couches was Ana, who was methodically taking apart and reassembling her rifle with a frown on her face. As always, she was wearing her standard blue Kevlar Overwatch armour. In front of her, Torbjörn was almost her exact opposite. Garbed in a red mechanics jumpsuit, the Swedish engineer was snickering to himself while looking positively giddy as he stroked his beard with his mechanical arm. His single visible eye twinkling with mirth.

When Ana began to disassemble her rifle once again, Naruto decided to let his presence be known. "Okay…" he began talking, raising an eyebrow at the strange situation in front of him. "Can someone please tell me what's going on?"

"Jack and Gabriel are discussing about something in Jack's office. Ana's been like this since she left said office and Reinhardt is busy training the new recruits," was Torbjörn's quick reply. At least now Naruto realised what made the Swedish so happy – Torbjörn loved drama almost as much as he loved his turret. Whenever some shenanigan was happening, you could always count on him being there enjoying the scene as if he were watching some sort of soap opera.

Grimacing at the thought of the poor recruits under the crusader's guidance, Naruto seated next to Ana. Reinhardt could be a little… passionate about training. If he didn't organize another joust, Naruto was sure that the recruits would be fine. Mostly. Hopefully. "That's good to know. But why is Ana pissed?"

"I'm not pissed. I don't know what gave you the idea that I'm angry about something. I'm simply cleaning my rifle like any competent sniper should do. I'm not angry." Her statement would have been a lot more convincing if she wasn't snappily assembling her rifle while saying it.

Sighing at her passive-aggressive behaviour, Naruto cleared his throat and looked at the giggling Torbjörn, "Don't you have that project to work on?" At his confused expression, Naruto cleared his throat once more and jerked his head toward Ana, hoping he'd get the hint, "You know… that project… about the new thing… in your workshop… not here."

"Nah, I think I'll stay. This promises to be quite entertaining." Naruto simply stared at him, paying no attention to his pleading look. Finally relenting, Torbjörn stood up and reluctantly walked out of the room muttering under his breath, "Fine, fine. I'm going. You're such a spoilsport sometimes."

After making sure Torbjörn was really gone and not simply eavesdropping outside the room – it wouldn't have been the first time – Naruto sat down and gave Ana a concerned look. "Are you going to tell me what happened to make you so tense? And please, don't tell me that there's nothing wrong because you and I both know it's not the truth."

"Jack and Gabriel are discussing, again. And they both believe that my opinion is not needed on the matter." Bringing her rifle up to her shoulder, Ana took a deep breath as she aimed at the wall in front of her. "I think I should be grateful that at least they seem to agree on something for once. They told me that once they established a plan of action they will inform me and the rest of Overwatch. Until then I've to be a good soldier and wait for orders. I know that the situation in Australia is complicated, but at least I was hop–"

"Did you say Australia?" Naruto interrupted her abruptly.

"Yes, why? Do you know something?" Ana had barely the time to drop her rifle on the couch, before Naruto took her hand and dragged out of the room. "Naruto what's going on?"

"I need to speak to all of you," he said to her as he strode through the halls and she realised he was bringing her toward Jack's office, "Just give me a minute and I promise I'll explain everything."

Ana squeezed his hand and gave him a nod in response. In all these years, Naruto had always been their rock, their stability. For the rest of the world they may have been heroes, but Naruto was their own personal one. Whenever you had a problem, he was always there ready to help you, listen to you or simply give you a shoulder to lean on. If he asked you to do something, you did it without question because you knew that he had always your best interest at heart.

As they barged into Jack's office, the two super soldiers stopped arguing and turned their heads toward the door. Jack was leaning forward with his hands spread on the desk. His long coat with the Strike-Commander pin on the collar was hanging on the back of the chair behind him, showing the simple blue muscle shirt and cargo pants he wore under it. In front of him, an unimpressed and annoyed Gabriel stood with his arms crossed over his chest. His clothes were the same he wore during the war and what every Overwatch agent sported on the field. However, they were completely painted black, identifying him as a member of the Blackwatch division.

Stretching his neck, the Overwatch commander sighed, "Naruto, right now it's not a good moment."

"Sit."

The two soldiers in front of him immediately sat down and straightened their backs. Naruto almost never used that tone of voice. Commanding. Authoritative. The voice of the Nanadaime Hokage. However, when he did you could only shut up and listen. "Ana told me you're arguing about what's happening in Australia. Let me guess, Jack wants to support the Omnic community while Gabriel thinks we shouldn't involve ourselves in the situation."

At the end of the war, the Australian Government decided to gift its country's omnium – the factory where omnics were self-produced – and the surrounding area to the omnics, hoping to establish a long-term peace accord. While this sounded like a great deal for the omnics, several Outback's residents found themselves suddenly without a home and they were definitely not very happy about it. In response, they formed the Australian Liberation Front – the ALF – and struck against the omnium and its robot population to take back their lands.

It was quite obvious for Naruto that the two super soldiers would have opposite opinions on the matter. Jack agreed with the Australian Government, seeing the treaty as a step forward toward a better relationship between human and omnics. On the other hand, Gabriel sympathised with the ALF's cause, especially considering his own strong dislike toward the omnics.

Looking at the ceiling, Naruto tiredly asked them, "What is the first thing I taught you?"

"Look underneath the underneath," they promptly responded.

"Look underneath the underneath, exactly. I'm happy to know you two still remember that." As he nodded to himself, he slowly walked toward the two soldiers, towering over their seated forms. "So, could you tell me why you are not seeing what is going on around you? You're too busy fighting on what you should do that you're missing what is happening right under your nose. That is not what I taught you."

"What did we miss?" Gabriel asked, his voice marginally smaller and humbler than usual. Being scolded by Naruto was the worst feeling ever, and he has been shot multiple times.

"Let's do a quick recap, shall we. The ALF was formed barely six months ago. In those six months, its members managed to infiltrate the omnium dozens of times, sabotage several machines inside of it and hijack military resources which were supposed to be used against them." The three soldiers widened they eyes as they realised what Naruto was implying. "Don't you find it a little odd how efficient they are?"

Gabriel frowned, he hated omnics but he hated being made a fool even more. "Someone's helping them. Do you know who?"

"No, unfortunately. I can tell you that they're good though. They barely left a trace behind. Everything that I've found is in that report. That's actually the reason why I'm here in the first place," Naruto said while pointing at a folder on Jack's desk.

Standing up, both Jack and Gabriel moved toward the desk and picked up the files. The two soldiers exchanged a quick glance conveying a single thought. When and how did he drop the folder? Shrugging their shoulders, they continued to read the documents when Jack asked a question, "Who's Gérard Lacroix? His name appears several times."

"He works in the IT department. Every contact between the ALF and its mysterious benefactor happened online and you know how much I hate computers. He was the one to find and reconstruct the various electronic traces they had left behind. I simply brought him the files and he did all his hacking mumbo jumbo. I tried to follow what he said to me but I lost him when he started talking about things like XOR Chiper and Skycode." Naruto had never learnt to use a computer. Sure, he knew the basic thanks to his time spent as Hokage. He could easily read and send e-mails and open a file but he wasn't a hacker, not even close.

"Isn't he sixteen or something?" Gabriel questioned as he read through the documents.

"Yes, he's the one who managed to hack into the computer database of Overwatch when he was fourteen years old and that's why now he's working in the IT department. On our side, this time. He's really good." Tilting his head, Naruto smiled mischievously at Gabriel, "Have you already forgotten your lesson to not judge from the appearance? Do I need to take another pair of chopsticks to remind you?"

Swiftly placing his hand over his right cheek, Gabriel nervously shook his head side to side. He still got the scars of the first time Naruto threw a pair of chopsticks at him. Thankfully, no one ever asked him how he got those particulars scars on his face. He had to blackmail Jack just to be sure that no one would know about it.

"There's still something missing though…" Ana said more to herself than to the others in the room. She decided to carefully listen to whatever Naruto had to say before make an educated guess and there was something that she simply couldn't understand. "Why are they helping the ALF? There's not so much to earn from helping them. They're mostly survivalists, solar farmers and hermits that live in the Outback. With what they could repay them? There are easier and cheaper way to get that plot of land in the Outback."

Appearing next to Ana, Naruto put his hand around her shoulder and squeezed her tight against his chest. "And that's why Ana is my favourite! She knows to look underneath the underneath and she wasn't even my student." Said students could only grumble at the smug smile on Ana's face.

"I have a theory about why they should help the ALF, but for once I really hope that I'm wrong." As he dropped his arm to his side, all trace of mirth disappeared from Naruto's face.

"They want to start a second war."

Passing a hand through his hair, Naruto pointed at the documents in Jack's and Gabriel's hands. "The only thing ALF is accomplishing with its action is to increase the tension between human and omnics. Whenever there's a war, there's always someone making money out of it. A second conflict against the omnics could mean a lot of revenue for the right people."

"A Second Omnic Crisis…" Ana breathed out in disbelief.

"It's just a theory but it's not so farfetched." Turning toward the two male soldiers, Naruto stared firmly at them. "Now you realised why I was so… disappointed by your behaviour. The world is counting on you to protect them and you can't let your personal feelings cloud your judgment. I'll always be here to help you, but I won't do your job. I trained you better than this. I trained you so that you wouldn't need my help."

Jack slumped on his chair, his eyes still lingering on the folder on top of his desk. Was he really so busy fighting against Gabriel that he forgot his priorities? He was supposed to be a role model. Instead, he needed Naruto to remind him what he had to do. He was the Strike-Commander, so he'd better start acting like it. "Gabriel, can your people manage to infiltrate the ALF?"

Humming in thought, Gabriel scratched his chin, "Yes. It'll take sometimes, of course. Those types of extremist groups usually are close-knit communities, with members knowing each other for years and distrustful toward outsiders. Difficult to infiltrate but not impossible."

"We should let Gabriel being in charge on the field, Jack," Ana suggested as she took a couple of steps forward, "I know that you want to help, but unless the Australian Government doesn't ask of Overwatch personally, our presence there would only scare the ALF away. We can't let it know that we're after it. Right now the only advantage that we have is the fact that the ALF doesn't know that we know about this mysterious organisation helping from the shadows."

Jack really didn't like it. He hated not being directly involved in an operation, especially one important as this one. However, he trusted Gabriel. No matter how many times they may fight, Jack knew that the Commander of Blackwatch was a good friend and an excellent soldier. Sometimes even better than himself. Not that he would actually say that to him. Gabriel's ego was already big enough. "Fine. But I want a report on the situation every week. And I mean every single week Gabriel, not whenever you feel like it."

"Yeah boy scout, don't you worry. You'll get your reports. I'll even personally bring them to you. How does that sound? And Ana," Gabriel added as he looked at the sniper, "I need you to introduce me to your contacts in Australia. I already have in mind who…"

As the three soldiers started to discuss the possible course of action, Naruto slowly backed away toward the door and silently exited the office. When he closed the door behind him, he could still hear the muffled voices coming from inside. Good, they didn't notice he was gone. He warned them about the threat, now it was up to them to deal with it. His job was done. He would stick around for a couple of days, just to see with what they would come up, but hopefully they wouldn't need his help.

In the meantime, he had to find something to do to pass the time. A bored Naruto was a dangerous Naruto, especially with all this new innocent recruits around him. So young and naïve, they were just begging him to be pranked. Speaking of recruits, maybe he could go see Reinhardt training the new batch of candidates. That definitely sounded entertaining. Torbjörn was probably there too enjoying the show. Naruto had to agree with his Swedish friend though. There was something cathartic in seeing an over 7 feet tall mountain of German muscles jollily throw around men and women like they were confetti at a wedding.

It took him a couple of decades, but Naruto finally realised the joy of teaching – torture your students just as much as your own teachers tortured you. Jack and Gabriel could consider themselves lucky that he didn't give to them the Maito Gai's training regime. Naruto wasn't so sure the two super soldiers could have handled such a youthful training. Both physically and mentally.

Some things were better left buried and forgotten.

x-x-x-x-x

Author note: Hi everyone! New chapter, new author note. I don't know why this chapter was so difficult to write. Honestly, I don't think it's the best but… meh. I hope you still enjoyed it.

Many are concerned that Overwatch characters will suddenly gain chakra or new types of power. Let me be clear about it: it's not going to happen. I'm a little bit surprised that some people didn't realise what I'm doing, think about it. Gabriel has infinite guns and he's intrigued by the ability to pass through physical matter. Fareeha can blast away people with a flick of her wrist. Angela, a blonde blue-eyed girl from Zürich, is fascinated by a golden-winged guardian angel. Ring any bell?

About the title of my story, I noticed that there's a song on Youtube about Overwatch called "Watching Over You". Well… that's awkward. It's a really nice song, but my title didn't come from there. You probably noticed that I'm using quotes from Overwatch (said by Soldier: 76, Mercy and Genji respectively) as titles of my chapters. The same title of the story is also a quote (Mercy: "I'll be watching over you"). I simply removed the "I'll be" because it's not just one person: Naruto is watching over Overwatch, which is watching over the world. I thought it was an appropriate title.

Beside, this Naruto is a lot like the Mercy of the game: always babysitting others and being frustrated about it. Playing support is so hard.

I'm happy to inform you that I finally did it. Reviews, favourites and follows are nice and dandy, but your story isn't a real story until you don't receive your very first flame (it's this what they're called?). And receive it I did. Unfortunately, I cancelled the anonymous review just because it was so… boring. It was literally the world "kys" (Kill YourSelf) repeated over and over again. That's it, nothing more. I don't really mind if you insult me or my story, but please at least do it in an original way. Now that I think about it, I probably shouldn't incite people to insult me on the internet.

See you all next chapter. Bye.

Posted: 09/12/16

Last Updated: 01/20/17