I don't own Pani Poni Dash! nor do I own Naruto. I am merely borrowing the characters from each series for an amusing short story. It's great how the chapters are all done already. I'm going to post them throughout the day when I get the time. Busy busy...

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Chapter 2: Ramen-Eating Naruto

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"Itadakimasu!" Naruto shouted as he split the chopsticks and raised the bowl of ramen to his face.

Teuchi nodded in approval when Naruto started slurping his noodle extremely loudly.

Some time later, the lighting within the ramen stand changed as someone pulled aside one of the white cloth curtains to step in.

Naruto lowered his bowl for a moment to see who had just entered. It was the girl that had found him hiding in the soda machine a week ago. Disinterested, he returned to his meal.

"Smells good," the blond girl said as she looked at the menu.

After a moment of silence, she finally spoke up. "I'll have the chicken ramen please."

"Coming right up!" Teuchi cheerfully said.

In moments, the blond girl's order was steaming hot and ready to eat. It must have taken a lot of willpower for the girl to wait that long, a faint spot of drool could be seen trailing down from the corner of her mouth.

Picking up a pair of wooden chopsticks, she broke them apart and happily said, "time to eat!" before she dove right in.

She had just taken a slurp when her eyes widened in surprise. She turned and sprayed the broth upon an unprepared whisker-scarred boy.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted angrily as he disgustedly wiped himself off with an offered napkin.

Teuchi and Ayame had a frown on their face.

The blond girl wasn't listening. Instead, she was staring intently at the ramen bowl. "W-What the hell is this?!"

"Ramen." The other three said or shouted.

A tic mark appeared on the blond girl's forehead. "Get your tastebuds checked! It doesn't taste a thing like ramen!"

Teuchi's face turned red. "This is ramen young miss," he defended.

The blond girl shook her head. "I've been eating ramen for the past few weeks now! I should know what it tastes like." she angrily retorted. "And this isn't it!"

A confused look appeared on the old man's face. Ayame and Naruto sported equally confused looks. If she knew what ramen tasted like, why couldn't she tell that this was indeed ramen?

The blond girl continued her rant, "I've been watching how you worked. I didn't even see you add hot water."

A light bulb appeared in Naruto's head. However, he had to ask one question to make sure. "Whatcha talkin about?"

"I'm surrounded by morons," The blond girl sighed before she looked up with a glint in her eyes. "Okay, I can see that you haven't had ramen before so I'm going to explain it to you in simple terms. First you go to the supermarket near the weapon's district. Then you look for these bowls in the third aisle starting from the right." she chopped the air three times to emphasize her point before cupping her hands in a crude imitation of a bowl.

Taking one of her cupped hands and drawing a line across an imaginary lid, she said, "They will be labeled ramen on the top. Remember, ramen. You take it to the front counter to pay for it and once you take it home, you boil water, remove the shrink wrap, pull off the lid-"

It was obvious now.

"Y-You're comparing my masterpiece to instant ramen?! G-Get out!" Teuchi angrily shouted.

The blond girl blew a raspberry at the stand owner while giving him the finger with both hands. When the old man stomped forward threateningly, she recoiled slightly. Slapping down some ryo, she ran out.

A cold wind blew over her almost uneaten ramen bowl.

Ayame and Teuchi cleaned up the mess before the old man reluctantly picked up the ryo and counted it. "Hey wait. Get back here! This isn't enough!"

It was too late, the blond girl was long gone by now.

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-.- Hahaha, uhh, the influence for this one came from Lucky Star. I was just rereading the first part of the manga where they were discussing food when this struck. That and the fact that I hadn't eaten lunch...

After a bit of research on wikipedia, I came up with this.

You know what the weird thing is? I don't think many have ever considered Naruto polite whenever he eats. Guess what! It's considered polite to slurp your ramen loudly in Japan. Look up "Cat's Tongue." In addition, drawing in cool air helps cool the piping hot soup down. Maybe Naruto takes it a bit too far...but...