No. 3
"What do you mean you don't use zeni?!", the son of Gohan questioned.
"Like I said kid, we only use ryo in the Land of Fire, I've never even heard of zeni.", the old shop owner explained.
Akira was shocked, to say the least. Land of Fire? Ryo? Both of these were new elements in which the boy was exposed to. Of all the years that he lived in this world, neither of these were ever brought up. The boy's pondering was brought to a halt suddenly.
"Listen, I'd love to give you a history lesson that you appear to desperately need, but I have to close shop pretty soon...", the kindly shop keeper stated. "Here, don't forget about your pay.", he said, sliding the foreign currency toward the boy.
"... Thank you old man, I'll let you be now." Akira collected the pay and left the old shop keeper to his duties. With nothing left to do, he started walking towards who knows where.
"None of this is making any sense... Just where the hell did I end up? Alright, let me think. Mount Paouzu, Grandpa's lived there all his life and I just came from there. But somehow, within the weeks that everyone's been gone, a totally new place just springs out of nowhere? Not only that, but judging by the looks of things, this village has been here for many years... So did we just overlook this place every time we traveled to West City?"
Yeah right! We arent that stupid!", unfortunately for Akira, he said this with his own mouth, gaining looks of confusion and annoyance from the other pedestrians.
"Oh man! Sorry everyone!", he quickly appologised.
Suddenly, a sound akin to a growling bear echoed from the boy's midsection, once again frightening the passers by.
"Whoah! I didn't know I was this hungry!", the fighter thought whilst moving his hands over his stomach, "I seriously need to refuel asap!"
The boy decided to walk on the path laid before him, hoping that it would lead him to the salvation he so desperately needed. After two minutes passed, his silent prayer had been answered.
"Whoah, get a whiff of that! It smells delicious! It's almost on par with my Grandma's cooking!", the boy was overcome now with uncontrollable salavation.
"Broth, noodles, different types of meats? These scents together can only mean one thing!", Akira looked around for his answer, finding it several meters away in the shape of a small stand, hiding it's insides with curtains.
"Oh yeah! Ramen!", the boy sprinted the rest of the way with a look of utter content plastered on his face.
Going up to the curtains, the young warrior ducked under and made his way in.
"How's it going?!", Akira bellowed.
"Hello, Welcome to Ichiraku!", a young woman with brown hair greeted.
"Thanks!", the boy took a seat.
Looking around the inside, Akira was pleased with what he saw. The decor was made to where it felt homey to both the staff and the customers. The aroma of the different types of ramen filled the quaint little stand to the brim, bringing a smile to Akira's face. As far as he could tell, there were only two workers running the eatery.
An older man, most likely in his fifties judging from the color of his hair and the wrinkles he wore on his face, which gave him a grandpa-ish appearance that complimented him. His hands looked strong, most likely from working and kneading the dough used to make the different types of noodles for the bowls of soup. Akira knew with one look at this man, that he absolutely adored his work.
The other worker was the young lady who greeted him. Looking at her, she must have been the man's daughter, judging by how well they got along and worked together. It reminded him of when he and his father, Gohan, would fight along side one another. Absolute harmony. She was beautiful in her own right, having a soft and caring face with silky brown hair. Looking at her hands, Akira saw they were delicate, with multiple cuts here and there from chopping the produce and meats.
Akira very much liked this place.
"Hey, I've never seen you here before kid. First-timer?", the old chef asked.
"Yeah, you could say that! I just got into town so I guess I'm a first-timer for just about everything.", Akira replied with a smile.
"That's wonderful! It's always great to meet a new face. My name's Ayame, and that's my father Teuchi! Whats your name?", the kind girl asked.
"My names Son Akira. Nice to meet you both!", Akira replied with his signature Son grin. The old chef bellowed with laughter.
"Nice to meet ya kid! So, what'll you have?"
"Well, like I said I'm new, so I'll leave that up to you mister Teuchi!", the boy said.
"Wait, 'Mister'?", Teuchi questioned.
"...What?"
"Well, usually people put a -san after my name, they don't really use 'mister'.", the older man stated.
"Oh, sorry! Force of habit! You see I always used to put the 'mister' in front of my old teacher's name. It wont happen again Teuchi-san.", Akira said apologetically.
"Ah it's fine kid.", the kindly old man said. He promptly began to create a pork ramen for his young customer.
"So Akira, where are you from?", Ayame asked.
"A little place called Mount Paouzu, it's over in East District 439, you ever heard of it?", Akira asked, hoping somebody would know what he was talking about.
"Wait, Mount Paouzu?"
"Yeah!", exclaimed a hopeful Akira.
"Never heard of it!", said the smiling girl.
Akira let his head sink low, upset that she got his hopes up.
"Order up! Enjoy kid.", the old ramen master said, sliding the bowl in front of the boy.
Without a second thought, Akira grabbed the nearest pair of chopsticks and started inhaling the intoxicating food.
"Whoah... I guess Naruto's got some competition!", thought Teuchi.
"Oh my Kami, he's jacked!", thought Ayame after getting a good look at Akiras muscular arms.
As Akira was finishing his delicious bowl of ramen, he heard the voice of a kid coming toward the stand, talking about some academy or some technique. Wondering who the voice belonged to, the young Z fighter looked toward the curtain and saw a short kid enter, and the only thought that came to mind was...
"That's alot of orange!"
A/N: So, again, this is not a long chapter. And I apologize. The thing is, I'm getting ready for a new job and that has been taking up way too much of my time. Again, I apologize. So with this chapter, I wanted to set up how Akira and Naruto meet, hopefully I hit a mark. I think the way that I am explaining things is starting to improve, if not, tell me how I can improve. So... review please, I really need the criticism so that I can make the story better and more engaging. If you want you can also PM me if you have any questions about, well anything. One more thing, I'm using the app on my phone to type this story up so if it comes out a monstrosity, I am so sorry. See ya!
