Seven: Over a Bowl of Ramen
Disclaimer: I still have yet to win the rights to Naruto from my eternal rival Kishimoto-san I—ugh!
Kishimoto-san: Konoha Senpuu! knocks zero0000 unconscious
zero0000: unconscious
Kishimoto-san: I am not your eternal rival and you are NOT Maito Gai. Get that through your thick head.
zero0000: bleeds
Where am I?
What am I doing here?
How long have I been gone?
A pair of sleepy blue eyes opened reluctantly to the combined glare of morning sunlight and fluorescent lighting. Ah. So it was the hospital again, was it? Naruto rubbed his bandaged head. For sure he didn't remember dragging his beaten ass down here. Maybe Shizune or one of the anbu found him lying on the road. He was pretty sure Tsunade-baachan's orders to get him to a hospital with each beating was still standing.
"Hello sleepy-head."
Naruto blinked. Yukio-anechan? What in blazes was she doing here? He blinked again. Inhaled. Deeply. Was that wonderful scent what he thought it was? Blue eyes snapped open and took in what the Ichiraku waitress was holding in her lap. A delivery box. But not just any ordinary delivery box. An Ichiraku ramen warmer model X42-300, designed to keep ramen warm and toasty until it reaches its supposed destination.
Which, in a few minutes, would be Uzumaki Naruto's digestive tract.
The blonde genin leapt from bed and snatched the delivery box with a mighty cry of "RAMEN!". Just as Naruto was about to dig in, he noticed that for some reason Yukio was blushing furiously. Something in his distant memory was slowly starting to fight its way out of the deepest recesses of his mind, something vitally important to remember when you're expecting a female visitor to come visit you in the hospital.
"Naruto-kun?"
Oh that's right.
He was wearing a hospital gown.
Open at the back.
Barely hanging from his neck.
When the full implication of all this finally hit home, Naruto scampered back to his bed, banging one of his toes in the steel frame. He hopped around briefly to shake off the pain when he slipped and banged his head on the floor. Cursing under his breath (praying that his anechan never heard him), he clambered up the bed and promptly slid off the other side before he managed to get a grip on the bed frame and stay on it for once. When he was finally deep within the recesses of his hospital-issued blanket, he peeked his head out carefully. Yukio was now facing a wall. "Is it safe to look now?"
"Yes. Sorry about that."
But in Naruto's mind…
Baka! You flashed a girl! How the hell could you do something like that! To Yukio-anechan of all people! Now she'll probably be traumatized all her life. She'll have to go to a shrink and get all of those disturbing mental images out of her head and…
Naruto's thoughts were abruptly cut when the woman in question wrapped his arms around him. The blonde was barely able to contain the flush growing on his cheeks when he realized that the girl was crying.
"I was so worried. I didn't think--" Naruto silenced her with a finger on her lip.
"It'll take more than that to get rid of me!" Yukio looked and saw that Naruto had on his patented "good-guy" smile. She couldn't help but share his optimism. Here was a boy who nearly got himself killed last night and yet he still had the strength to smile.
What an amazing person indeed.
"Naruto-kun?"
"Hai, anechan?"
"Why wouldn't you fight back yesterday? I heard from Kakashi-san that you were one of the best shinobi in Konoha. Dispatching of drunken louts like that should have been child's play for you." Naruto bit his lip. Nobody else could know why those men always beat up on him, or why certain individuals in the village always glared at him as if he did the most terrible thing in the world.
To their eyes, anyway.
"Well," Naruto scratched his head, thinking of an answer. "Actually shinobi are supposed to protect their village, right? I can't very well beat up on people just cause they were drunk or anything right? That wouldn't be becoming for a future Hokage," he finally managed. All these things were true, if not truly complete.
"I see…" Naruto grimaced. "Besides, it's not like they do this to me all the time, right?" A question isn't a statement after all, so there wasn't any lies or truth in that last response. Though that wasn't exactly a lie, he still felt a bitter taste in his mouth as the words came. Yukio kept him in her arms.
"Naruto-kun?"
"Hai?"
"You're the most wonderful, forgiving person I know."
At that last statement his cheeks went red. Naruto went even redder as the waitress from Ichiraku planted a kiss on his cheek. "Don't ever change," Yukio whispered.
"Anechan?"
"Hai?"
"My ribs?"
"Oh, I'm sorry!"
Yukio let go of the blonde genin and retreated to the safety of her chair. Naruto wasn't really hurt, but he felt that if she didn't let go of him that instant, he might try something Jiraiya would approve of.
He certainly didn't want that. Bad enough he had to put up with Ero-sennin's perverted antics. Did the bastard have to rub off on him too? Stupid puberty and stupid hormones, Naruto thought to himself.
"Naruto-kun?"
"Hai?"
"Want to have that ramen now?"
A smile lit up the shinobis face. Oh right. Ramen. He was so wrapped up in Yukio hugging him that he nearly forgot all about that. Taking the bowl from her, he wrapped his fingers around a pair of chopsticks.
"Itadakimasu!
A/N: Aw! Ain't that sweet! This being a love story I thought I'd finally put some sort of interaction between Naruto and the original character. Loved that part about Naruto momentarily forgetting about the ramen. Anyway, please review.