Author's Note: Hi, this is the first Naruto fic I've written in literally six years (my middle school fics never get to see the light of day)! I'm probably too old to be obsessed with this again but when quarantine depression says it's time to rewatch my favorite middle school anime and have it slowly consume my life, who am I to deny its wishes?
It's late when Naruto gets home, and it's even later when he puts his shoes back on and makes the depressing trip to the grocery store down the street. This one has late hours, which tends to be especially convenient when he comes home from a mission to find everything in his fridge half-spoiled. Unfortunately, he was away for two weeks this time. Which means he could smell the milk souring before he even unlocked the door to his apartment. It wasn't pleasant. He pinched his nose shut as he dropped his bags inside and immediately tossed everything in the kitchen into the trash bin. Now, he's at the store, blinking away the sleepiness from his eyes and trying really hard to keep from yawning in front of the shop owner.
She's an old shrew of a woman, complete with wispy grey hair and wrinkles, always eyeing him while he's shopping and hushing him when he's barely even said anything. Now, if she's like that on the regular, he really doesn't want to irritate her in the middle of the night. So he bites back his yawn and rubs at his eyes instead, but luckily for him, that causes him to walk right into someone.
"Shit!" Naruto cries, earning a lengthy shush and a piercing glare from the lady at the front. So much for staying on her good side tonight. He groans and turns back to whoever he ran into. "Sorry, that's my bad. I wasn't watching where I was going."
That whoever is actually a young woman that looks around Naruto's age. She's facing away from him, but he can clearly see that she has brown skin and that her hair is pulled back into two braids.
"It's fine," she mutters out, and that's the end of that. She walks away without another word, leaving Naruto alone in front of the instant ramen bowls. He had expected her to snap at him, but he's definitely not complaining at this turn of events.
He turns his attention back to the shelves of noodles and sighs. There's only basic brands here, and they're nowhere near as good as Ichiraku's, but he can survive off them for a few days. He doesn't need too much right now, just enough to hold him until Sakura takes Sasuke and him shopping for actual groceries. She's always getting on them for eating too much instant food, and she must have gotten sick of it, because now she spends at least one lunch break each week at the store with them.
Naruto takes several packages in his arms and doubles around to grab a replacement carton of milk before heading up to the front of the store to check out. The old lady is just as bitter as ever, but this time her resentment is directed at the woman he ran into earlier.
"I'm tired of you coming in here and wasting my time. 400 ryo. Either you have it or you don't." The lady's got her arms crossed over her chest, and Naruto swears it looks like her eyes are gonna to pop right out of her head.
"I swear I had enough this morning," the woman says as she rifles through her wallet. "I must have left it in my other bag."
The lady scoffs, and it sounds like a cat trying to cough up a hairball. "Same line you used last time. Right before I had to put everything back on the shelves myself."
"I—"
"I don't wanna hear it. Either you pay or you—"
Naruto steps up and drops his things on the counter. "I'll cover her," he says. "All together it's what, 550 ryo?"
The young woman opens her mouth to protest, but she decides against it and bites her tongue in resignation. She's silent as Naruto pays for the groceries, and she stays silent as they take their bags and head outside.
As soon as the doors close behind them, Naruto breaks the silence with a groan. "Geez, I've known that hag for years and I've never once caught her in a good mood."
"You didn't have to do that for me," the young woman blurts out. She's staring at the ground and holding her bags with a tight grip. Naruto pauses for a moment before responding.
"It's not a big deal," he says. "It's a real shitty feeling to be too broke for food." He spotted the signs from a mile away. The resignation on her face when she heard what her total was. The way she made a show of going through her wallet. He knows what it's like, and he can personally vouch that it's not any fun. He nods at her bags. "I can carry those for you, if you want."
"What?" She shakes her head and her braids sway back and forth behind her. "No. No, you've already done too much for me."
"I said it's not a big deal. You might as well let me. It's the middle of the night and I've already made up my mind to walk you home."
"And I said no," she insists as she starts down the street. "Walk me home if you want, but I can take care of myself."
Naruto pouts and catches up to her in a few swift strides. "Oh, c'mon. I'm trying to keep up my gentlemanly streak."
"Is that what you call it?"
"Yep, and I'm good at it. So you should let me carry your things for you." He bites back a yawn. "I'm a ninja so I'm pretty strong, if that's what you're worried about. I could carry all these bags in my sleep without breaking a—"
She sighs and stops in her tracks. "If I say yes, will you stop talking so much?" Naruto grins from ear to ear and nods. "Knock yourself out, then." She hands over the bags, and he gets a good look at her face.
Her eyes are silver. They're not pure white, like Hinata and Neji's, but silver. Something nags at him from the back of his mind, but he can't figure out what it is. His grin falters and he finds himself staring at her.
The woman, of course, grows uncomfortable with the tension. She looks away, shifting her attention back to the ground. "I don't like being stared at."
"Sorry," Naruto quickly apologizes. "I just— I feel like I've seen you before."
"We live in a village. You should be used to recognizing people by now."
That's a good point, but he has a terrible memory. The sheer fact that he knows her face is unsettling, because that means he's had to have known her. He's so certain about it. But he can't figure out how, and it eats at him as they walk.
"So," Naruto starts, "I don't know a lot of civilians. What do you do, like day to day?"
"I work, mostly. There's a sashimi restaurant near the ninja academy, and I'm there every day." Well, he definitely doesn't know her from there. He never had a reason to stop at that place, not when Ichiraku's is just down the street. "It's pretty boring compared to what you do," she adds.
Naruto shrugs. "I mean, a normal day for me is just a lot of training, and then a lot of food to make up for the calories, and then a lot of sleeping. Missions are pretty uncommon."
The woman pauses for a moment. "Have you been on any recently?"
"I just got back from one, actually. I was in some town near the Land of Rivers border 'cause a bunch of nasty guys were holding a fisherman's daughter hostage. The guy couldn't afford the ransom, so he hired a couple of us for half their asking price. We still got paid pretty well, and we got the girl home safe too, so it all worked out." He muffles a yawn in the shoulder of his jacket. "Sorry, I'm talking a lot again, aren't I?"
"I don't mind it. I like listening," she says. And then a moment later, she points out an apartment building. Naruto recognizes it as the building just across from his.
The woman pulls her key from her pocket as she gets to her door. "I owe you one."
Naruto yawns again. He really needs to go to bed. "You don't have to do that," he says.
But she insists. "Yes, I do." She unlocks her door and turns to him. "I don't let people help me out often, and I don't like the feeling. Now that you know where I live, it's your job to put my conscious to rest. So if you ever want something, just come by and ask for it. Deal?"
It's a strange deal to make, but Naruto finds himself agreeing to her terms.
"Great," she says. She takes her groceries back and flashes a polite smile. "Goodnight." And then she shuts the door. That was an interesting interaction.
Naruto rubs at his eyes and is just about to head home when he notices the mailbox under her window. The name Korimizu is neatly printed on the front, and he makes a mental note of it.
He crosses the street and heads into his apartment for the second time that night. He kicks off his shoes, puts his bags in the fridge (dried ramen included), and collapses onto his bed without a second thought.