Chapter 3

After half an hour of lying on the ground crying Naruto got up and dusted himself off. Many people had passed him and just ignored him, laughed at him, or gave him a look of disgust. Naruto looked at his arms that were scraped by the fall and noticed that the cuts were gone and only dry blood remained. In the past he noticed he would heal quicker than others but it wasn't this quick. He decided that it must be that he is lucky. 'Me being lucky… yea right. I guess I have to have luck in some aspect of my life' Naruto thought to himself.

Naruto found the suitcase that the Hokage had given him to store all his stuff. The Hokage had also given it to him so that Naruto could be more organized, although it still didn't work very well. Naruto walked up to his suitcase, wiped the tears from his eyes, and began shuffling through the limited amount of things inside the suitcase. 'Well everything is here…wait' Naruto began searching more frantically and then began searching his pants he was wearing. 'They stole my money that I was supposed to use for the week! How can this day get any worse?' As though the sky heard him, it began to downpour on the toddler.

"No!" Naruto yelled as he began to close his suitcase to protect his clothes from getting soaked by the rain. He ran into the first shop he could find to protect himself from the cold wet rain. When he walked into the shop the lady at the register looked at him and yelled "you aren't allowed in the shop get out now!"

"But it's cold and wet outside; please don't make me go back out there…" Naruto said as he jumped when he heard a roar of thunder outside. Naruto had always been afraid of lightning and thunder because when he was in the orphanage he never had anyone to look after him during thunderstorms. He would normally just hide under his blankets until it stopped or until he fell asleep. He would call his little fort of blankets his submarine. He had to make sure there were no holes in his fort so that he was protected while the storm passed.

The lady got up and saw that he was afraid of the thunder but held no remorse for the demon child. She walked over to Naruto spit in his face and said "That is not my problem; now get out before my husband forces you out!"

Naruto wiped the spit off his face, kicked the lady in the shin, and ran out the door before she could yell to her husband. He ended up having a similar interaction and sometimes even worse in other shops. Half an hour later he was being chased out of a restaurant by a man wielding a pan. He luckily ran far enough out of reach for the man to just give up. At this point Naruto was exhausted, sneezing, and hungry. 'I need to find something to eat, but I've walked for miles and haven't found a place that will let me in.' As he was thinking his nose began to tingle with the smell of a new scent… an amazing scent. He walked towards the direction of where the scent smelt the strongest, until he arrived at a small restaurant that was called Ichiraku Ramen.

Naruto stood outside in the rain while he contemplated going in and seeing if he can get some food. His brain told him no because he didn't want to be chased out or treated wrongly. But Naruto really wasn't feeling well and his stomach was growling very loud. He decided to walk into the bar-like restaurant. When he got in the aroma hit him like a wall of goodness. His mouth salivated as he put his suitcase up against the wall. He looked up and saw a man staring at him. The boy looked up to the man and asked with the most innocent look on his face: "Can I please (ACHO) stay here (ACHO) to get out of the rain?"

Teuchi (Mr. Ichiraku) recognized the boy. He was one of the few that knew who Naruto's real father and mother were. He had known this because he was like a family friend, since Kushina constantly ate ramen at Ichiraku's. "Naruto just wait there" Teuchi said as he went out the back door and around to where Naruto was.

Naruto was curious as to where the man was going and how he knew his name. When he noticed the man walking outside in the rain toward the front of the restaurant he got scared because people only got this close to hurt him. He grabbed his suitcase and was about to take off running when he turned to exit and the man was directly in his path...

Teuchi immediately recognized the Naruto's frightened expression and that Naruto looked like he had a fever from being out in the rain. He didn't want to scare the boy and have him run away and be outside longer. 'Hmmmm I have to do this carefully so he doesn't think I'm here to hurt him.' Teuchi thought to himself. Teuchi knelt down on one knee down to Naruto's level and slowly reached his hand out to Naruto's forehead.

Naruto saw the man move his hand out and immediately flinched expecting to be hit. But when he noticed he could go nowhere he closed his eyes and stood where he was. He felt a hand come onto his forehead gently and then heard the man say: "Hi my name is Teuchi. It looks like you have a fever, how about we clear that up with some ramen!"

Naruto never had someone be so kind to him before, he didn't know what to do. He began to walk toward the wall to put his suitcase back when dots appeared everywhere in his vision and he began to feel nauseous. All the blood felt as though it had left his brain and his body felt like it was going to melt for being too hot. Naruto pale and exhausted fell to his knees and passed out.

Teuchi was worried when he saw Naruto fall. He quickly checked the boy for a pulse and noticed the pulse. But Naruto was burning up and needed to get indoors. Teuchi saw that Naruto's plain white t-shirt was bloody and scratched up but there were no wounds on him. He decided to ask about it later. Teuchi quickly closed the restaurant down, picked up Naruto, and headed to his home.

When Teuchi got home his daughter Ayame, who was just 4 years old, ran up to him and hugged his leg. Ayame has brown hair and brown eyes and is a little taller than Naruto with her being a year older. "Dad who are you carrying and why is he asleep?"She asked.

"Ayame, this is Naruto and he is not feeling very well from being outside too long. I'll be right back, I'm going to change him into dry clothes and cover him up to sleep. Can you please bring me a bowl with cold water and a towel?" Teuchi asked as he headed up the stairs with Naruto in his hands.

"Yes father I'll be up in a second!" Ayame agreed as she went to the kitchen.

Teuchi got Naruto's suitcase and grabbed the only other outfit he had left. It was a beaten up orange t-shirt with smears all over it. Also he found a pair of black gym shorts in the suitcase. Finally he dressed Naruto into dry clothing and tucked him into bed when Ayame came through the door. She was carrying the bowl of water and a towel. "I got what you asked for."

"Thank you honey! Can you take care of Naruto while I go take a shower? When I'm done with the shower you have to take a nap." Teuchi knew his daughter hated naps but they were good for her and would give him time to digest what happened and relax.

"Awe but dad…. I don't need a nap!" Ayame got the eye from Teuchi that told her not to argue with her father. "Okay fine then I'll take care of Naruto and then take a nap."

"Good, thank you!" Teuchi said as he headed toward the bathroom.

Ayame grabbed the towel and began to dunk it into the water. She looked over at the knocked out boy and she wringed out the towel. 'I really like his blonde hair and those little marks on his cheek make him look cute.' She thought to herself as she folded the towel. 'What are those marks on his cheeks, are they drawn on?' She thought curiously as she crawled onto the bed. She crawled up next to Naruto and placed the towel on his head. She then gazed into his face and thought 'Wow he's so peaceful when he sleeps. It's like he's sleeping on clouds. (In fact that was the most comfortable bed he had ever been on.) She returned to her mission and put two fingers on the top of Naruto's cheekbone and slowly dragged her hand down over his marks.

Naruto began to twitch and smile as he felt something tickle the side of his face. He rolled over, still asleep, and grabbed the nearest object to him. In the orphanage Naruto was lonely so he would often cuddle with the extra pillow that he had. Naruto liked the pillow he was holding at the moment though. The pillows at the orphanage had no fluff in them, making them very flat. 'This pillow is perfect, it is solid and warm and nice and and and… breathing?' Naruto's eyes shot open to see Ayame's face bright red and about 3 inches away from his face. "WOA!" Naruto quickly unlatched himself from Ayame and scooted back as far as he could until BANG "Ouch!" Naruto yelped as he had fallen off the bed.

The noise quickly broke Ayame's trance. She quickly got off the bed and ran over to the other side where he was sitting holding his head. "Are you okay, Naruto? Here let me see that as she pointed to the spot he was holding on his head." Curiosity came over Naruto as he obliged and bowed to get his injured head closer for her to look at. Ayame looked at the little bump growing on Naruto's head. "Awe that's going to hurt for a while but you should be okay."Ayame said as she kissed the injury to make it feel better.

Naruto got his first kiss and he loved it! He had seen other kids kissed before by their loved ones but to have it actually happen made Naruto feel like Ayame cared about his condition. He quickly gave Ayame a hug as he blushed because of what had transpired earlier when he thought she was his pillow. "Thank you for being kind to me!" He said with so much happiness in his tone.