Chapter 4
They arrived home a short while later. Given the lack of shoes by the door, nobody else was home.
"I'm home!" The Hokage called as he took off his shoes.
"Unless you didn't realize, Hokage, nobody's home." He said, bluntly mocking the man in front of him.
"I'm not completely alone." The Hokage replied, pointing to a potted plant sitting on the cupboard beside a family photo. "See? Ever since I was little, I always come home to greet my plants."
"That's just stupid." He replied.
"Maybe."
They went back up to the Hokage's office and he waited with the bags on the couch while he moved stuff around. Out of season clothes were removed from hangers, folded, and put on the shelves below.
"There, now you have room to hang your clothes up." The Hokage said when he was done. He sat down at his desk and started looking through some papers.
He didn't reply, despite seeing in the blond's expression that one was expected, and instead just hung up his clothes. He had a variety of t-shirts, several pairs of pants, a second tank top to wear at night when it was cold, and a new hooded jacket. It was ridiculous the amount of money the Hokage had spent on him, a prisoner, and it was honestly the most he'd ever owned in his life.
He got out his new jacket and an outfit to wear, intending to go downstairs and change in the bathroom, when the Hokage spoke up.
"Do you want me to patch up your shirt for you?"
It was a question they'd asked not long after his arrival and thus far he'd refused.
"Sure." He replied
"Okay. Leave your shirt in here and put the rest of your clothes in the basket on the washer, Hinata will wash them for you." Said the Hokage.
"Got it."
He went and changed and put his old clothes in the basket on the washer before heading to the living-dining room to sit for a while. It was nice to just sit in here, sipping on a glass of water from the tap and watching the snow, not being bothered by anyone.
Apparently when they said it would snow, they didn't mean anything remotely similar to what he was expecting. In the village he grew up in far off in the isolated far northern mountain region of the Land of Grass, snow meant lots of fluffy white stuff that went at least up to his knees all season long. The cold soaked through his clothes and into his very bones. It was a real, life-threatening problem when he still had to go out and chop wood day after day in the cold with just his hoodie and threadbare gloves. Not just for work but also so they would have wood for the stove and could use it to heat the house.
A long while passed and he started feeling faint from hunger again, so he went over to the kitchen intending to see if there was anything he could cook. Then he'd go ask permission.
He looked around in the cabinets and the only thing in it that he knew how to cook was rice, but he didn't know how to work their stove. It was a new, modern, gas stove not the wood-burning one he'd been taught to use as a child. He couldn't even read the characters and symbols on the knobs to tell what did what.
He growled, frustrated.
There's food but I can't cook it.
He got himself another glass of water from the tap instead. Halfway through it, he heard the Hokage come down the stairs.
"Are you getting hungry, too?" The Hokage said, walking in with the kettle in one hand and a few cups of food from his office in another. "I can make us some ramen."
Its prepackaged, so its probably safe. I'll just have to watch him carefully.
"Okay." He replied.
"Which flavors do you want?" the Hokage asked.
"Just one, it doesn't matter which." Much as he wanted two, he didn't think he had the appetite for two. He wasn't used to eating this much this often yet. He also refused to admit he couldn't read the labels to identify the flavors.
"Okay. Just give me five minutes, and it'll be ready."
He watched from a chair at the table as the Hokage filled the kettle with water, plugged it in to boil, and then poured the boiling hot water in three cups of ramen. Two glasses of water, two sets of chopsticks and three cups of ramen were set out on the table – one for him, two for the Hokage.
Wow that looked easy. I could do that. And it smells delicious!
"Itadakimasu." The Hokage chanted briefly, excited, before pulling the top up and digging in.
I've never seen someone else so happy just to eat good food.
He copied the Hokage and pulled the top back and off before taking a bite. "Which one is this?! This is really good!" he exclaimed.
"Right? That's Ichiraku Ramen's shiro ramen!" the Hokage replied over another bite.
"I really like this!" he replied, grinning and taking another bite. "How many flavors are there?"
"Ichiraku makes the best cup ramen! They have 7 flavors year-round and they release super rare flavors for special occasions!" Naruto replied, looking just as happy and excited to talk about the ramen as he was.
Just then, the front door was unlocked and another adult walked in.
"I'm home!" Mrs. Uzumaki called.
"Welcome back, Hinata!" Naruto called, setting his chopsticks down and getting up to greet his wife at the door. "Here, let me help with that."
Why do they all do that?
Naruto and Mrs. Uzumaki walked back in carrying several bags of groceries. He watched, continuing to eat and trying to savor his food, while they unpacked it all. More rice, vegetables, meat, fish, prepackaged snacks, boxes he didn't recognize, and random household necessities like toilet paper and detergent were all unpacked.
"Hinata, do you want me to make you some ramen?" Naruto asked.
"Yes, thank you, I'll have miso." She replied. "I'm hungry after all that shopping."
Naruto put the kettle on again and by the time the groceries were put away, her ramen was done. She sat down at the table to eat with them.
"How did shopping go, Kawaki?" she asked, taking a bite of her miso ramen. "Did you find a new jacket?"
"Fine." He replied. "Yes, I did."
"Do you want us to fix your old shirt, now that you have something else to wear?" she offered.
He nodded and swallowed his last bite of the delicious shiro ramen. "Yes. He said he'd do it, it's in his office."
It would still make a good sleep shirt.
He washed his cup and chopsticks in the sink and threw the ramen cup away before heading back to sit in the armchair and watch the snow fall while Naruto and his wife talked. After lunch, Naruto helped her move the small table in front of the armchairs out to another room and replaced it with a low table with a blanket under it.
"What's that?" he asked.
"It's a kotatsu." Mrs. Uzumaki replied. "It's a table with a heater built into it. We don't use it much, but its nice for cold days like this."
He nodded and made a noncommittal noise as reply. "Ah."
"I didn't grow up with one either, I never had one until we got married." Naruto replied. "It's amazing! It's great to sit under the heated blanket with a bowl of ramen or a cup of hot chocolate. It really keeps the cold out."
A short while later, Naruto went back to his office to work. He spent the rest of the day sitting under the heated blanket of the kotatsu table despite the fact that meant he was forced to sit with Mrs. Uzumaki, too. She was drinking a hot cup of tea and reading a book, leaving him alone to just sit and watch the snow fall. He would've preferred to sit further away from her, but the table was the warmest spot in the house. It was nice to be able to be inside, warm, and away from the snow.
He spent a few hours like that, just enjoying the peaceful silence and the freedom to just sit and do nothing without being confined or forced to train.
How much longer am I going to be able to just sit and do nothing like this?
It wasn't long before Himawari got home from school.
"I'm home!" she called, walking in the door and pulling off her boots, jacket, gloves, hat, and scarf.
Mrs. Uzumaki put a bookmark in her spot in the book, and walked out to the entryway to greet her daughter. "Welcome home, Hima. How was school?"
Why did she do that? The kid was probably going to come in here anyways.
"I had lots of fun playing with Eho and Yuina today!" Himawari exclaimed, following her mother into the kitchen. "We played ninja at recess in the gym."
"That's wonderful!" her mother replied. "Do you want some tea and a snack? I have green tea in the kettle."
"Yeah!" Himawari replied, going over to a bowl filled with prepackaged snacks on the counter. "Wow you bought a lot, mama!"
He watched the little girl's hand hover over several different food items indecisively until she finally picked one and came over to the table with it. Her mother already had a warm cup of tea waiting for her at the kotatsu. Himawari put her backpack down on the floor and took the cup of tea from her mother, drinking contently.
"Kawaki, do you want a snack? You can go pick one out, too." Mrs. Uzumaki offered.
"A snack?" he echoed. They had so many names for all these set meal times and he just wasn't used to any of it.
He thought about it as he watched Himawari open her cookies and start eating them.
They're probably safe cause they're prepackaged. May as well eat while I can. Dinner isn't safe. They could just be trying to set me up, just like the goldfish salesman did.
"Yeah, I'll have some." He replied, getting up and out of the warmth of the kotatsu blanket.
He went over and picked out the only familiar looking thing in the basket – rice crackers. There had been a small shop in the village he was raised in that sold them, but he'd never been able to afford them. His father never would have allowed it, anyways. He got a mug from the cabinet and took it back to the kotatsu, too, letting her pour him a glass.
He sat down and accepted the tea from Mrs. Uzumaki, scrutinizing the packaging before opening it eagerly. The packaging looked different, so maybe it was a different seller or flavor than the one he'd wanted to try as a kid. But nonetheless, he was finally getting to try rice crackers.
He took a bite, grinning, savoring the taste and flavors he didn't have a name for. "This is really good!"
Himawari giggled, laughing at him. "You look like papa when he eats, Kawaki!"
"So what?" He took another bite of the thin, delicate, flavored cracker.
"I mean, you both love to eat! It makes you happy." Himawari replied. She took the last bite of her cookies and balled the wrapper up in her hands to go throw away.
"I suppose so." He replied.
Author's Note: Thank you so much for reading! Please leave a review and let me know what you think! I had a lot more fun writing this chapter than I did the last chapter.