Himitsu
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Also for those who wishes to see what the characters look like, go to the link on my profile.
Pairings: For those who which to suggest pairings, sorry, but the pairings are already chosen for this story. This story will have both slash and hetero pairings.
What I can tell you is the pairings for some of the characters: LeeSakura, ChoujiIno, KakaIru
The rest of them will be revealed as the story goes on.
Ch3
Teuchi sighed deeply as he stared at the broth cooking over the stove. It's another slow day since his best and favorite customer had left for his training journey with that legendary sanin. That pervert better be doing his job and train his student properly or he may have a very unhappy hokage and ramen chef after him. Hey, he may be just a ramen chef, but he was once a great shinobi back in the day.
He glanced up at the clock ticking on the wall. It's almost time for them to come in. Ever since Naruto had left, his friends made it a ritual to come and eat here together once a week, almost as if they try to get rid of that lonely feeling without the ball of sunshine. As it was nearing the time where they would usually come to eat, he waited anxiously if there were any news regarding Naruto. Then he heard a strange sound, that reminded him of a stampede, and it was heading in his direction.
"!" Kimi shouted, running into the stand, with her hands trailing on behind her and a big smile on her face. Her pigtails flapped back and forth as she looked at the place that sold her favorite food with excitement.
"Kimi, don't go off by yourself," Kiba said, huffing and puffing when he came up from behind her, "Where the hell do you get all your energy from?" They had just arrived from the Inuzuka compound after placing her things down in a guest room that was close to his room and explaining everything to his sister and trying to convince her that Kimi was not his illegitimate child, but a ward of Naruto's. They then left for the ramen stand for the weekly lunch reunion. When Kimi caught sight of the small restaurant, she ran off in full speed with Aki in her hood and leaving him and Akumaru in the dust. He picked her up and placed her on one of the stool and sat down beside her. "Hey, Teuchi-san," he greeted.
Teuchi stared at the five year old girl. "I didn't know you have a daughter, Kiba-kun," he said.
Kiba dropped his head down on the table with a loud smack. "Not you too," he muttered. When he lifted his head up, there was a red mark on his forehead to indicate where he banged his head on the table. "This kid is just someone that is all Naruto's fault," he said.
Teuchi dropped the ladle he was using to stir the soup onto the floor. "Naruto-kun has a kid!" he exclaimed in shock.
"What? NO!" Kiba shouted, "Naruto found a couple of kids in the woods and decided to look after them. He sent them here early since they wanted to see Konoha and he has a bit more to do in his training before he comes back home!"
"Oh, okay," Teuchi said, calming down a bit, "That sounds like something Naruto-kun would do." He looked over at Kimi, who was interested at the noodles that were being cooked. "So, what's your name, little girl?" he asked.
"Kimi," she replied, "Hahaue named me after chichiue." She turned her head to look at the small puppy that was in the hood of her jacket and sniffing the air. "That's Aki; she's named after her chichiue too."
"That's nice," Teuchi said, smiling. He couldn't help but laugh when he saw Kimi starting to salivate. "So Naruto got somebody hooked on ramen, eh?" he asked, chuckling.
"Nah, she's been like that ever since she was able to eat solid food," an unfamiliar voice said, "Kinda annoying when she does the puppy eyes to convince her dad to buy her ramen."
Teuchi looked up to see a smaller version of Sasuke with blond hair entering into the shop. "Sasuke-san?" he gasped, "What happened to your hair? Why have you shrunk? Jutsu mishap?"
Satoru looked at Teuchi with one eyebrow arched. "Sasuke is outside talking to Sakura," he said, glanced over his shoulder, to the older shinobi, whose body is half inside and half outside of the shop.
Teuchi blinked when a smaller version of Neji with blond hair appeared. "Neji-san?" he asked hesitantly.
Nagi shook his head and pointed behind him, where Neji had entered the shop. "Did everyone arrive yet, Satoru?" he asked.
"Just Kimi and us two," Satoru replied. He sat down next to the little girl, who was happily twirling around in her chair, chanting about ramen. "I'll get a beef miso ramen," he ordered.
"Satoru, can't you just wait for everyone else to come before you order?" Nagi scolded.
"Their own fault if they're late," Satoru muttered. He grabbed Kimi by the head to make her stop twirling. "Did you order yet, chibi?" he asked.
"I want one of each ramen!" Kimi exclaimed, causing everyone to look at her insanely.
"One at a time, chibi," Satoru said, bopping her on the head gently.
Kimi grabbed the back of her head and cried, "Itai!" She glared at Satoru, who ignored her, and turned to Nagi with pleading eyes. "Nagi-niichan, Satoru-niichan is being mean to me," she whined.
Nagi sighed and, in a bored tone, "Satoru…"
"Sorry we're late," Kumiko said, entering the restaurant with a pleased smile on her face. "We passed by the coolest weapon store and I wanted to take a look around."
One by one a large group began to congregate in the ramen shop. Many of them Teuchi has seen since his many years of living in the village as Naruto's friends from the genin days and their teachers. However, this small group of children was complete strangers to him, he guessed they were also wards of Naruto who found them and decided to look after them. Teuchi shook his head knowingly, as hardheaded Naruto is, his heart's always been very big. He even believed that Naruto would fall in love with more than one guy because of that heart of his.
Yes, he said 'guy'. Teuchi had a blond somebody come up to him and admit that girls aren't what his heart flutter, but he is in no way a homosexual. Teuchi was confused when Naruto had told him that because, after all, you can't be one and not the other as well. Naruto just winked and gave a slight smile while whispering, "Himitsu."
/-/
When lunch was finished, the children turned to the teens, some of them asked, while the others demanded to be brought to somewhere private so they can talk. Sasuke brought everyone to his estate since it was located on the Uchiha grounds and nobody, who isn't his friend, would dare step foot on his property.
"So what's the big secret?" Sakura asked, sitting next to Lee on a two-seated couch.
The kids were sitting together around a three-seated sofa. Minato and Kumiko sat on both ends with Kimi on Minato's lap. Sora, and Hiroki sat in the middle between them. Satoru and Nagi were leaning on the armrests at either ides with Shinji and Hiro on the floor. They all looked at each other and nodded their heads in silent agreement.
"The reason why we wanted to come to Konoha so early wasn't because we were excited to see the village Naruto-niichan came from," Nagi stated.
The older shinobi stiffened and made a shift movement to protect themselves in case the children decided to attack.
"We're not planning an invasion, so relax," Hiro snorted. He reached behind and held onto his large paintbrush, as a way to protect himself in case the first hit was delivered. "As if a bunch of kids like us would be take on a whole village by ourselves." He rolled his eyes and looked away in annoyance.
Shinji gave Hiro's head a slight push, causing him to fall over. "The real reason why we wish to return is to cross examine a few of you to discover who is better suited for Naruto-niichan," he said.
"Better suited?" Hinata asked, tilting her head in confusion, "You mean like a girlfriend?"
"More like potential husbands," Satoru said in a displeased tone. He turned his head and stared angrily at the wall behind him.
It was silent for a few seconds before, all of the older shinobi shouted, "HUSBAND!"
"Yeah, 'husband', you think a wife is what Naruto-niichan needs," Satoru began, until Kumiko gave him a smack on the back of the head.
Kumiko glared at the younger boy as he rubbed his aching head. "What this idiot is trying to say is that Naruto-niichan needs someone who can look after him," Kumiko said.
"And you think that means he needs a husband. Why can't a wife take care of…"
"Naruto-niichan told us himself that he prefers a boyfriend over a girlfriend," Nagi said, interrupting Kiba's rant.
"HE'S GAY!" came another round of shouts from the older shinobi.
Kimi laughed. "They're so silly," she said to Minato, pointing to them.
Minato patted her head. "It's not that Naruto-niichan is gay," he said, giving a somewhat secretive smile, "He just prefers guys over girls."
"How is that possible? If he prefers guys that are the same gender as him, that would make him gay," Iruka asked, trying to put together the missing pieces of his surrogate little brother.
Acting like they had rehearsed it over and over again, all the children said in unison, "Himitsu." Some had lifted a pointer finger over their lips while others had smirks on their faces, like they knew something and they weren't going to tell.
The older generation all fell to the ground at the answer they received, not fully knowing that just years before when Naruto was still in the village he had done the exact same thing.
"So, which guy do you kids have in mind," Iruka asked.
"Sasuke," Satoru said while Nagi replied, "Negi."
The Uchiha and Hyuuga mentioned stared at each other in confusion. Sakura giggled as she was leaning on Lee, who was trying to get her to stop, because the two looked like they were planning to murder her in her sleep and he liked his girlfriend to be alive. The men's attentions were then turned to Kiba.
Kiba, unlike Sakura, didn't giggle but burst out laughing, "Hahahahahahaha. Sucks to be you guys!"
It wasn't until he heard Kimi shout excitedly, "I pick Kiba-niisan!" from her place on Minato's lap that he stopped laughing and stared at her with his jaw dropped. His eyes blinked a few times before they rolled up and he fainted on the flor.
Hearing this, Sakura just laughed even harder, and fell to her knees.
"Sakura-san, it's not nice to laugh at your friends' expenses," Lee said to his girlfriend, who ignored his plea.
Shinji gave a deep sigh as he rubbed his ears, "She's so loud." He looked up at Shikamaru said his name with a bored look on his face, "I pick Shikamaru."
No expression was shown on Shikamaru's face, only his grumble, "Mendokusei," was a reply of what he thought.
Hiro looked over at Shinji and watched as he decided to lie down on the floor. He looked back up and said, "Sai," before turning his attention back to Shinji, who now appeared to be sleeping.
Sai didn't say anything, but just smiled like he knew what was going on.
Sora smiled shyly and said softly, "I picked Shino-niisan."
Like Sai, Shino didn't say anything, but inside his head, questions began to pile up.
Hiroki was playing with Kimi on the sofa. He was waving his stuffed raccoon in the air as Kimi did the same with Aki. "I want Gaara-niisan,' Hiroki said, stopping only to say that before continuing to play.
Gaara's teal eyes narrowed at this statement. He then turned to Kankuro, whose mouth was open as if to say something. "Say anything and you die," he warned, causing his brother to shut his mouth immediately.
Everyone wondered why these children came to this conclusion and why they picked these seven boys. They were certain that the kids never met them and the only times they heard about them would be from the stories Naruto may have told them.
The more vocal of the seven guys, meaning Kiba, awoke and shouted at the top of his lungs, "I'M NOT GAY!" He then pointed at the others and said, "And I highly doubt they are as well!"
"Ignore the fact that Naruto-niichan is a dude," Hiro said, giving a blank smile to them, "Would you then like to knock him down and have your way with him, ravishing each area while trying to find out where his sensitive spots are?"
Shinji opened one eye to see their faces turning even redder. He sighed, "Yakkai," and gave Hiro a kick. "Stop trying to embarrass people like that." He sat back up and rubbed his hand through his hair with an annoyed groan. "What this idiot is trying to say is that despite the fact that Naruto-niichan is a man, don't you find yourself drawn to him?
"But anyway, this is the reason why we're here before Naruto-nii-chan," Kumiko said, "Starting tomorrow we're going to be examining you to see if you're perfect for him."
Satoru clicked his tongue and started to head to the guest room where he's staying. He stopped for a quick second and turned back to them. "If you don't want to be picked then just tell us and we'll give up on you. There are seven of you and so there are more than enough choices for us to choose from." With that, he walked away.
Nagi was still glaring at the place where Satoru had left. "It's like he makes it his lifelong ambition to get on everyone's nerve," he muttered.
Kumiko patted his head and laughed. "You know Satoru," she said, "The two of you have been together since the day, month, and year you two were born."
"The day, month, and year?" Iruka repeated, "So the two of you share the same birthday?"
Kakashi grabbed onto Iruka and leaned his chin on his shoulder. "Must be fun," he added, causing Iruka to elbow him sharply at his side.
"Unfortunately that was the reason why they have a rivalry between each other," Shinji muttered, "Which can be very annoying since Satoru can become very competitive. Like father like son, as everyone always say."
"But what I don't understand is why do you feel the need to find a suitable partner for Naruto," Iruka pointed out, bringing the conversation back to its purpose. "I'm sure that Naruto is smart enough to find out whether or not who is perfect for him."
"That may be true, but there's a huge problem with that," Kumiko replied. She leant further into the couch and crossed her legs on top of each other and her arms in the back of her head. "Naruto-niichan has a too big of a heart. Not to mention, he has no experience in love whatsoever."
"Chances are, if someone confessed their undying love for him, Naruto-niichan would most likely agree to go out with them," Hiro told them, "So to make sure that we weed out any undesirables, we're going to look very closely at the ones that we pick as potential husband of Naruto-niichan."
Everyone looked conflicted. While they were correct at the idea of undesirables getting close to their very good friend, many of the guys weren't sure how to feel at being selected as potential 'husbands'.
As if sensing their troubles, Minato asked, "How about you think about it tonight? I'm sure it's a lot to take in so you might need some time to think about it." He put Kimi on the floor and helped Hiroki down from the sofa. "Tell us tomorrow about your decision and we'll start from there. So until then, it's time to send these kids off to bed."
PLEASE REVIEW AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK! WHO DO YOU THINK DECIDES TO AGREE TO THE COMPETITION FOR NARU'S HEART?