"No." Straight, direct—he was not mincing his words at all. Even to royalty.
Now that I thought about it, did anyone consider me as royalty? I just came here, out of the blue. It would probably take some time before anyone associated me with royalty. Especially when I was so ignorant of everything.
"Please—"
Putting the kitchen ladle down, he turned and glared at me. For a moment, I feared he would roll on me.
(I couldn't help that thought—he looked like a ball.)
"Your majesty, sit down and wait. You can't cook and I refuse to let anyone who can't cook use my ingredients or my wares."
"…" Sighing, I sat down, mumbling under my breath, "but my money is used to buy them."
"What was that?"
"Nothing."
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Hokage's Choice
Chapter Ten—Secrets over Soup
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A cook was bound to know a few secrets, I realized after a few minutes. Maybe even tell me some.
"Uh…Choji-san, was it?" He nodded and I continued. "Can you tell me about…" Who to ask about first? My enemies to exploit? No, best to know more about my (possible) allies. "Naruto-san?"
"Naruto?" Choiji laughed, a deep thing of rumbles. "He should be here soon enough—can't miss his hourly ramen."
"Oh…Lee?"
Choiji grew quiet, stirring the pot once more. "He has a sensei, Gai. They wer—are close…" Glancing at me, he asked, "Why do you want to know about him?"
"Well…I…" He caught me there. "I want to know more about my…"
"…So you already know about Ino and Kiba, then."
I smiled gratefully. "Yeah. Not a very warm welcome from them."
"…Not from Ino, I expect." He chuckled, but it wasn't as big as last time. "She…when she was young, she'd play with us—Shikamaru and I. All the time. We'd go in the woods, her mom would scold us so much, and she would like to be the princess in our games. She wasn't bad or malicious at all." He looked at me, almost pleading, and I nodded.
"But then…" He sighed once more, stirring the pot. "Anyways, Kiba also really badly wants that crown too. They tend to work together a lot now. Lee and Naruto don't fully agree with them but those two know just what to say."
"And Sasuke-san?" I refused to call him 'Sasuke-kun' like my character's personality wanted. That guy would not raise a finger to help me unless it helped him.
"He doesn't care either way as long as he gets what he wants." Choji said shortly and I knew he would not talk any further on that subject.
Though, it made me curious. What did he want? And why did Ino change?
What happened to Gai?
A loud stomping noise was heard and Choji quickly brought out some bowls.
"RAMEN!" I could barely make out that it was Naruto before the blond blur rushed to Choji. He grabbed a filled bowl, about to dig in, when Choji whacked his head.
"That's not respecting the food!" he growled, giving him a pair of chopsticks. "PATIENCE."
I approached the pair, intent on getting my own bowl. It must be good if this boy ate it everyday.
"…" Naruto looked up from his bowl to see me. Amazingly enough, during the time it took me to approach the two, he had already finished his first bowl.
"Hello," I remembered that he hadn't met me yet, "I'm Haruno Sakura."
"Haruno Sakura-chan? That sounds familiar…." He scrunched his face, trying to remember.
"She's the new Hokage," Choji reminded, laughing at him.
"Hey, I would have remembered that eventually." Naruto smiled at me. "I'm Uzamaki Naruto! I will be the future Hok—"
"Is that something to tell someone who is going to be the future Hokage?"
"…oh, right…"
-x-
To: SUchiha
From: Uchihacorps
Subject: Re: Lawsuits
Whether or not it is too early to consider a lawsuit is up to us. It seems to me, foolish little brother, that you have been spending too much time around that friend of yours. Perhaps it is time for you to return to our headquarters before you change too much.
Luckily for you, I read this before they have, or else you would not have a choice in the matters. Be more careful with what you say.
It reflects poorly on me if you behave like this.
Send the files anyways. We need to know more about her history to see all possibilities.
Try the more specific scans if nothing comes up. We need to cover everything and anything.
-x-
We sat there, Choji busily cooking in the background, and I glanced at him. Best to plunge ahead and ask him now.
Tactfully, of course. He wanted to be Hokage, so I could start there.
"Why do you want to be Hokage?"
"Hmm?" He looked up at me, noodles hanging off his chopsticks, and quickly swallowed. "I want to prove my worth, show everyone I am someone."
I raised an eyebrow. "Someone? And the best way to do that is to become Hokage?"
"…yeah…"
"Aren't you someone right now?"
He looked at me in surprise. "You…" Putting down his bowl, he hugged me, squeezing me tightly.
"Eh?"
"It's just," he pulled back, rubbing his head embarrassedly as he continued, "Not everyone thinks that way." I saw a broad smile—he must have been happy at those words.
I should remember them for later.
(And, with that smile, he didn't look half-bad. In fact…)
"I want everyone to think like that, so I'll become Hokage. That and…well…" He looked away, a little nervous. "You see, I…I have something….something in me."
"…" Baffled, I stared at him.
"And, there are others, with things in them." Before he could continue, he was interrupted by a loud gong.
"Is it that late already?" Naruto jumped to his feet, emptying the bowl as he did so. "Teme is going to kill me!" Waving a hurried goodbye, he ran out.
Leaving me even more confused than before.
This had happened too often to be a coincidence. Whenever someone got close to telling me anything, they would get interrupted. I learned enough to know something was up but not what that was.
Obviously, I had to wait to find out.
Or, at the very least, try to get as many clues as I could in order to figure it out on my own. I was good at puzzles and this was just another one, with hundreds of pieces to find.
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A/N: Sorry if it's a bit slow right now. I'm introducing characters and histories, so it is bound to not be quick-paced. And for those still reading this, thanks for having the patience to do so—I know I'm not a very fast updater.
I think I updated this last month, so at the very least I'm doing that so far. I'll try to update twice next month—It's November, my birthday month!
Also, I hate the title.