Special thanks to meinos887, Yumexchan and LbcLostKid for the reviews!
Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, I would be ordering him to do my laundry right about now.
"Oi! Naruto!" The blonde genin turned to see Kiba and Shino walking behind him a couple of yards. He turned and gave a jaunty wave of his hand as he waited for them to catch up. "Are you headed for the Ichiraku?" Kiba asked.
"Of course! Nothing's better after a hard day of training than a good hot bowl of ramen!"
"So then you've heard the news?" Naruto raised an eyebrow.
Kiba gave an exasperated sigh. "You know," he said. "about the new waitress whose supposed to be working there now. I heard she was hot! I mean look," he said, pointing at the Aburame "even Shino wanted to see for himself."
"Now see here Kiba--"
"It's okay man! It's pretty normal for guys our age to get crushes on girls!"
"But I wasn't--"
"So Naruto, you gonna join us?"
Naruto shrugged and gestured for the two to follow him. When they got to the blonde genin's favorite hangout, they discovered it crammed to the doors with more customers than the fox-boy has even remembered the restaurant ever having in all the years he went there.
"A pork ramen with lots of pepper!"
"I'd like a vegetable ramen. Heavy on the horseradish!"
"Regular ramen with barbecued beef toppings please!"
The trio squeezed through the crowd and impossibly, found themselves stools right on the counter. Old man Ichiraku looked harrowed as he filled out what might have been the umpteenth consecutive order in one of the busiest days of his restaurant. The proprietor spotted his favorite customer and apologized profusely for the slow service.
"Sorry about the slow service Naruto-kun. We're a bit busy lately."
"I noticed. What's going on old man?"
"Well, when word got out that Asakura-san was working he--"
"Wait, Asakura-san? As in Yukio Asakura?"
"Oh, right. You already know." Ichiraku sighed and wiped his brow with a dishtowel. "It's not that I mind really. Asakura-san attracts customers better than a bloody hunk of meat dropped in the middle of shark infested waters attracts a brood of great whites." The three genin blinked. Quite a long epiphany, that was.
"Anyway, I'll be back with your orders in a few minutes. Ayane! Take care of table three will you!" With that, old man Ichiraku turned and left for the kitchen. Kiba turned and gave the blonde genin a good shaking.
"You actually met Asakura-san?"
"Well, ye--"
"What's she like! Is she as beautiful as they said?"
"I guess she's--"
"C'mon Naruto! You wouldn't spare any details from your friend Kiba would you?"
The dog nin continued to harangue and harass the blonde genin, not even realizing that he never gave him a chance to respond. Akamaru was barking like crazy, trying to get his master's attention. Shino on the other hand, did what he does best.
He just sat there. Being Shino.
"Naruto-kun!"
The entire room went silent. Kiba sat there openmouthed, gripping Naruto's windpipe and unconsciously tightening his grip at what he saw. Asakura Yukio was headed in their direction with an empty tray in her left hand. She was dressed in a less formal kimono than when Team 7 found her, but she looked elegant nonetheless. Shino sat there with a look of surprise on his face.
But with the high collar and the glasses, nobody really noticed.
"Yukio-anechan!" Naruto beamed. Kiba turned to him, a look of shock on his face. The same look now marring the faces of every single person in the restaurant. The blonde genin continued to be unaware of the increasingly powerful killing intent that was being directed at him from every single person in the room.
Except for Shino. Because he's…well…Shino.
Yukio strode over to their stools and smiled. "Thanks again for helping me get this job, Naruto-kun. It was really kind of you. Especially since I didn't really know that many people in this town, except for maybe your team." Naruto struck a good guy pose that would have put Rock Lee to shame.
"Don't mention it! Mr. Ichiraku said he's never had more customers than when you started here!"
"Don't be silly Naruto-kun! I'm sure the restaurant always had lots of customers before Thanks for the compliment all the same."
They exchanged pleasantries for a while until their orders came and Yukio had to go. Naruto grinned and reached for a pair of chopsticks, itching to bring the perfect ending to his day with a good, hot bowl of ramen. Kiba just stared at him. It took a few minutes of that before the blonde genin found it too creepy to ignore. He turned and asked "WHAT!"
"H-how…"
"Spit it out Inozuka."
"H-how d-do…"
"Geez, you'd think you were hanging out with Hinata a little too much."
Meanwhile: Faraway in the Hyuuga compound, the heiress to the Hyuuga clan was training with her cousin Neji when a massive sneeze threw the clan prodigy to the ground. The branch house member wiped his face free of Hinata's nasal fluids.
"Eww. What the hell was that!"
"I d-don't quite know."
The two of them shrugged and continued with their training.
Naruto then proceeded to explain to the them the circumstances of his meeting the Ichiraku's most popular waitress. Kiba shook his head in amazement. "Wow that's lucky!" he exclaimed. "But you realize that even you're gonna have a hard time talking to her now that half the guys in Konoha are going to be stalking her like one of Sasuke's fan girls."
The blonde genin pursed his lips in thought. "Well that's true," he admitted. Naruto remembered having to put off his sparring sessions with Sasuke when a group of crazed fan girls suddenly showed up on his doorstep with baseball bats and blackjacks and knuckle dusters for the next few days. He shuddered. That was one memory he would rather not relive, thank you very much.
But then something else crossed Naruto's mind. Now that half the men in Konoha were hanging out in the Ichiraku, the place would never again be the comfy, cozy place he went to after training. It would cease to be Uzumaki Naruto's "happy place," the one region in Konoha where he could kick back and relax. When the full ramifications of the thought finally hit home, the blonde genin stared at the ceiling and muttered one sentence under his breath.
"Where the hell am I going to hang out now!"
Sorry. I thought I'd put in some more humor in the fic before the really serious stuff happens. Anyway, please review.