Chicken Ramen for the Soul, Part 1

"Your cooking sucks," Naruto said baldly, looking at Sasuke with slitted fox eyes.

Sasuke glared, a vein popping on his forehead. "If you don't like it, don't eat it, dobe!" He made a grab for the bowl Naruto was holding.

The baka raised his hands, getting his portion of scrambled eggs-on-rice away from Sasuke. "Hey! I never said I wasn't going to eat it!" He quickly shoveled rice into his mouth to prove his point.

Sasuke stared at him. "I thought you said you didn't like it." Even he had to admit the eggs were too salty. And a little burnt. Okay, more than a little. This was why he usually ate out. It really was a good thing Sakura always insisted on cooking their food during missions.

"Sho? What'sh yer point?" Naruto slurred around a mouthful of food, clearly confused and spitting rice and little chunks of scrambled egg all over the table.
Sasuke resisted the urge to tear his hair out. "Argh. Whatever." Sasuke resolutely turned to his own bowl and picked up his chopsticks again. "Don't talk with your mouth full. Idiot."

--

The two genins walked side-by-side, heading for team seven's usual rendezvous point. Naruto was talking a mile a minute and Sasuke had tuned him out five steps out from the apartment.

Sasuke was seriously considering moving out of Naruto's apartment and living somewhere else. He must've been delirious with exhaustion last night, actually thinking that being roommates with the dobe was going to be easy. He could probably still stay over at Sakura's if he asked. Or better yet, he can just camp out at his house. Who needed a roof anyway? Roofs were for the weak. Sasuke nodded to himself. He can move out today, after the mission.

"Hey! Are you even listening to me?" Naruto asked, annoyed. He'd stopped walking.

Sasuke stopped and turned, looking emotionlessly at the blond. "No."

Naruto glared. "Geez! See if I ever thank you again, idiot!" He put both hands behind his head and pointedly turned his face from Sasuke.

Sasuke blinked. Naruto was thanking him? "What?"

Naruto peered at him from narrowed eyes. He stared at Sasuke for a moment before sharply blowing out a breath. "I said: thanks for cooking me food and stuff. Nobody ever did that for me before."

Sasuke frowned and involuntarily made a fist. He hated hearing about how deprived Naruto was when he was growing up. It made him feel uncomfortable. "Don't mention it," he said, and began walking again.

He supposed living with the dobe wasn't so bad. After all, it's only for until his roof gets fixed. Besides, waking up after sleeping out in the rain always gave him a headache.

Naruto jogged a little to catch up to him. "So that's why I'll always eat your food, see? I mean, even if it was you and even if you can't cook for crap, you still made the effort and everything. Although, it would have been better if you cooked ramen. I bet even you can't mess that up. Or even if you did, I'd still think it was good, because I just love ramen. I still can't believe you don't like ramen, Sasuke. How can you not like ramen? There's so many to choose from and they're all so good! Like miso ramen and pork ramen and chicken ramen and of course there's..."

Sasuke growled. He was definitely moving out. Maybe not today, it would be too much trouble. Tomorrow, though, for sure.

--

Sasuke and Naruto waved goodbye to Kakashi-sensei. It had been just the three of them today; Sakura had apparently woken up that morning with a fever and cold and so was temporarily out of commission. That meant that Team Seven was, for the time being, going to be assigned nothing but D class missions. Sasuke had found himself very annoyed upon hearing the news that morning when Kakashi-sensei finally showed up, and thought that he and the dobe could handle higher ranked missions easily, especially with Kakashi-sensei. Of the three genins, Sakura did the least amount of work anyway.

Naruto, meanwhile, had been worried to the point of distraction the entire day. More than once either Sasuke or Kakashi-sensei had to step in and catch the dobe before he fell off a rooftop or ran into a wall. It was probably prudent to give them really simple missions, if Naruto continued to perform this badly.

Although, Sasuke thought it was very unprofessional for Naruto to let himself be so affected by Sakura's absence. He frowned. Then again, Naruto was never professional in the first place. Even when the dobe would occasionally display that immense amount of power and skill he had, he was never really professional. Driven, stubborn, and focused, maybe, but not professional.

Which was why Sasuke wasn't surprised when Naruto suggested they go visit Sakura after saying goodbye to Kakashi-sensei.

"I hope Sakura-chan didn't catch that flu bug that's been going around," Naruto said worriedly, just as they were a few blocks away from Sakura's house, "I overheard some of the old folks saying it's really bad."

"Sakura's young and resilient," Sasuke pointed out, "I doubt you have anything to worry about."

"Yeah," Naruto said, perking up. "And we can always ask Tsunade-obachan to heal her."

Sasuke nodded. Personally, he doubted the new Hokage would be so accommodating to anyone who wasn't Naruto.

"Hey, I got an idea!" Naruto ran up slightly ahead and grinned at Sasuke. "We should give Sakura-chan a flower—she always brought you flowers when you were in the hospital. It would probably cheer her up."

Sasuke shrugged. He didn't remember anything about any flowers, but he could certainly imagine Sakura being pleased about receiving a flower. Girls were like that, or so he assumed.

"Okay, what about this one?" Naruto asked, holding up what looked like a pink carnation.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Not that one, idiot."

"What? Why not?" Naruto peered at the thing.

"It's practically dead, that's why." Sasuke glanced at the bush Naruto got the flower from. "Pick something that actually looks alive."

"Oh," Naruto said, eyeing the drooping carnation in his hand before throwing it away. "Okay." He picked another flower, this one looking a lot better than the first. "Is this good?"

"That's fine," Sasuke said impatiently. He was getting hungry. He wanted this over with. Chasing a runaway parrot with a talent for inventive curses was more tiring than he thought.

"Hehe," Naruto chuckled and clutched the fragile bloom carefully. He was probably imagining some improbable romantic scenario or something starring him and Sakura. Sasuke frowned.

What an idiot.

--

A/N: Heh, I know I'm posting like mad right now, but it's because I'm posting as I go along and right now the muse is singing in my ears. :) Oh, I'm changing the format of the fic a little. Still no big-ass overarching plot aside from the two being roomies, but there will be mini-plots with parts.

HikariChang: er, still not really fluffy... I think my muse is a little allergic to high fluff content.

Hieisbestbuddy888: I think the whole coming home greeting is kinda cute... :)

ichaicha: hello fellow sasunaru writers member! Glad you think I'm writing in character.