Immortal Phoenix

Author: The Phoenix is Immortal

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor am I making any profit from this work. I do own my own original character.

Chapter 6: The Ichiraku Human and the Wrinkly Human

Ichiraku's? Apparently that was where we were going to eat. What do humans eat anyway? Well, I guessed that I was to find out soon.

Ichiraku's was the place that Naruto had pointed out to me earlier, though I did not even ask about it, exactly. It had an open area where humans sat and ate from…bowls, I think it was.

If humans ate from bowls…how was I supposed to with a beak and without hands? Would human food even be edible for me? I could die from something being in human food that I was not supposed to eat.

Well, actually, that was really unlikely, so it should fine for me to eat whatever it was that humans ate. If I had to, I could eat in my human form. I would rather not, because I could not even talk in that form yet. If someone asked me a question, I would only be able to respond with a strangled noise. Oh yes, it certainly was not that inconspicuous.

I could also go back to the forest and hunt down a quick snack. That was more practical. But then I might lose track of Naruto. What to do? And then I would still have to worry about more after that.

After the dinner, I would have to worry about finding a place to sleep. But, right now, food came first. Shelter would have to come later.

Naruto, with me back in sparrow size on his shoulder, walked towards the direction of Ichiraku's. It was on one of the more busy streets, so people were just glaring at Naruto again. I think some of them might have noticed me this time. I ignored them. What could they do to me anyway? As long as they did not know I was a phoenix or could talk, it should not matter. They would just think I was a normal bird. What they could do to Naruto was a different story though. I actually best keep an eye out.

Naruto went up to the front of the…store and jumped onto one of the…stools. Was it called a stool? I think it was. I had heard of those and the word store somewhere, maybe from Naruto's explanations of places? Anyway, I was still on his shoulder and I decided to stay there for now.

The human behind the counter noticed Naruto. "Hi Naruto. Back already?"

"Yup! And I even made a new friend!" He motioned to me.

"I can see that." He just looked strangely at me, but did not say anything else. I think he just passed it off as one of Naruto's quirks or something. Good thing he did too. I did not want to be known at the moment, and who knows…maybe humans regularly made friends with birds. With all the strange things that humans did, it would not really be that surprising. The human, I will call him Ichiraku human, spoke again. "What would you like?"

"Can I have a miso ramen?" This was said really loudly and happily. Naruto must love this place. He did say it was his favorite place.

"Sure, coming right up!" replied Ichiraku human. He went to the back of the store.

Naruto then turned his head to me. "Miso ramen's my favorite!" I just nodded and let out an affirmative chirp. If he said so. Who knows, maybe it really was good. But the Ichiraku human…who knows what that human might do to Naruto. The human seemed nice enough, though. But I should still keep an eye out.

Ichiraku human had come back by now. He was holding a bowl. He then placed the bowl in front of Naruto. I was curious, so I decided to jump off Naruto's shoulder. I landed on the rim of the bowl. I looked in. I did not see what I had expected.

The bowl was filled with…yellow looking long stringy…things. On top of that was more strange roughly round-shaped…things. What was that? It looked…more than a little…disgusting. That was human food? This was that they ate? How do they live with those things as food? I hoped that there was more to human food than this.

Ichiraku human told Naruto to enjoy the food. Naruto responded with a muffled "Thanks!" At least, I think it was "Thanks." It could have been something else.

He had already started to eat, which was why his speech was muffled. He ate at an astounding rate. The bowl was empty in seconds. Almost hit me with the sticks he was holding, too…I really must be careful with my tail feathers, and the rest of myself. Really, this child human was amazing…

Then, "More, please!" Naruto wanted more of that disturbing looking food? It must be good to him then. I resolved to try a little. Naruto thought it was good, so why not give it a try? I jumped off the rim of the finished bowl onto the counter. When Ichiraku human placed another bowl in front of Naruto, I jumped onto the rim. When Naruto lifted the long yellowish…things with the sticks he was holding, I pilfered two of them.

"Hey!" Naruto looked at me.

"What? I wanted to try, and you are not the only one that wants to eat."

"Oh, that's fine then."

"I only took two of the strange yellow long…things." Seriously, what were those? And I only spoke because Ichiraku human was not at the counter, so the human could not hear me.

"They're noodles." Wow, he anticipated my question. Well, I had been asking him a lot of questions lately, so I guessed that it was to be expected.

So those…yellow things were noodles. I see…

I was still holding on to the two…noodles. So I decided to eat them. I was surprised. The taste was not what I expected.

They tasted…strange. It was not bad, really. It just was not what I was used to. Edible, though. Honestly, I thought it would taste as bad as it looked. At least it did not. And since I was still at sparrow size, I was full. Those two noodles were enough. So I just decided to wait for Naruto to finish.

"…"

This was ridiculous. How many bowls had he eaten? I looked at the stack of empty bowls that was piled up. And getting added to. He…ate a lot. And that was an understatement. I mean, how does one eat his weight in food? That is exactly what Naruto did. It was amazing really.

He finally finished. After…many…bowls. I was in shock. Humans could eat that much? Did their stomachs fill the majority of their body? Seemed like it did to me.

He thanked and then paid Ichiraku human and then left the store. I was perched on his shoulder again. It was quickly becoming a favorite perch of mine.

By now, it was becoming dark. Now we just had to find shelter for the night. Where were we to stay? I did not know, so I just tried to keep an eye out for a suitable place. Great, we were homeless. What to do, oh, what to do?

"Do you have anywhere to stay?" I did not think so, but who knows, he just may. I hope so.

"No…" He was kicking at the ground again. I do not think he was happy. For good reason.

"Do not worry, we will find a place." I tried to make him feel better. He did not answer me, and just started to look around. For a place to stay, I think.

As a last resort, and I think this as a last resort, we could stay outside. I could anyway. Naruto should not though. Humans seemed to like to stay in those buildings. I think they need those.

"Do you know anyone that might help you?" He might, you never know.

"Um…" He thought for a while. Then, "Yeah! Ojii-san might!" Ojii-san…his grandfather? If he had a grandfather, he should not have been in the orphanage. His…ojii-san must not have been his real one. That is just a guess though.

"And where is your ojii-san?" Where indeed? We would have to find him in order for him to help us anyway.

"He's in the Hokage Tower!" Naruto was getting very loud again. I think he was feeling better now. Maybe at the mention of this ojii-san?

"Then perhaps we should start heading over there?" We really should, before it gets any darker.

Naruto started to walk towards the center of the village. I had no clue where he was heading. I guessed that I would find out soon enough.

After Naruto walked for a while, he stopped in front of a large red tower. This must be the Hokage Tower that he was talking about. Whatever a Hokage was. By now, it was not dusk anymore, but almost nighttime.

He entered the tower. He then started to walk up to the human that was situated at a desk. The receptionist, I guessed.

When he went up to the desk, the receptionist did not even look up. The receptionist human just said, "Do you have an appointment?" Bad receptionist, not looking up and all. Humans should pay more attention. It would be very easy to sneak up on them and surprise them if they were always like this. Actually...once I thought about it, not all humans were like this.

I had noticed that all individual humans were…slightly different from other humans. In appearance and personality. The Ichiraku human had not hated Naruto, but many other humans did. He also had looked different from all the other humans. Each human must be different from all other humans

"I want to see Ojii-san!" And then there was Naruto. He was being hyperactive. He was indeed a very…interesting person to be around. He certainly seemed different from all the other humans. He was my favorite human by far, because he was my only human friend. He was also a very likable human, unlike most other humans I had seen.

Now the receptionist looked up. And receptionist human saw Naruto…and the expression on the human's face changed. The expression turned into one that did not look…pleasant. I put the human into the category of "those humans that did not like Naruto." In opposed to the category "those humans that liked Naruto." That category only contained Ichiraku human though. The first category included all the villagers we had passed.

"You need an appointment to see the Hokage." The receptionist human said flatly. Yes, the human definitely did not like Naruto.

"But…I need to see the Hokage." By now, I had deduced that his ojii-san was the Hokage. Whatever that was. We did need to see his ojii-san though. Otherwise, where would we sleep? Or rather, where would Naruto, since I would be able to manage just fine outside.

"You need an appointment to see the Hokage," the human repeated. We were in some trouble. The receptionist human would not let us through.

While I was pondering what to do, another human walked into view. This person wore a lot of white, along with a triangular-ish shaped…object on his head. The object was red and white. The human had some wrinkles located on his (her?) face. From age, perhaps? Due to those wrinkles, I decided to call him (her?) wrinkly human.

Wrinkly human saw Naruto. "Naruto! What are you doing here?" Wrinkly human sounded like he (she?) liked Naruto. For now, judging by his (her?) reaction to seeing Naruto, I put him (her?) in the "those humans that liked Naruto" category. For now. Who knows what wrinkly human may do in the future.

"Ojii-san!" Naruto bounced over to wrinkly human. Naruto had literally bounced, jumping up and down. Since I was on his shoulder, the bouncing did not do anything to help my position. I fell off. I fell off. Luckily, I managed to get airborne before I hit the ground. I cannot believe I just fell off my perch…I mean Naruto. That was a little…humiliating. I am so glad that no one I knew was here. If someone was, that would be the end of me. And unfortunately, the movement drew the attention of wrinkly human to me.

"Naruto, what is that?" Wrinkly human had asked that.

"It's my new friend." I was flattered. He had said that so happily. Except for the fact that it drew the wrinkly human's attention even more so to me. I just chirped. I was trying to avoid being known as a phoenix for now. I already had a human friend, Naruto, and that was all I needed for now. So no more talking to humans for now. I had already done too much things involving humans anyway.

"I've never seen a bird of that looks like that…" Great, now wrinkly human was suspicious of me.

I hoped that Naruto would not say anything about me being able to talk or being a phoenix. I did not know enough about humans to be sure about them yet. So far, I had seen that humans could be quite…cruel. And that was to one of their own species. Since I was not of their species, they could possibly try and do something to harm me.

I was sure that they would not be able to harm me, but you never know what these humans could do, or at least try to do. For example, they could attempt to send me back to my own world. And I could not let that happen. So for now, it was safer to be on the unknown side.

"Guess what?" Oh no…since this was said with so much enthusiasm, I had a horrible feeling about what was going to happen. "Akarui can talk!"

Oh, stupid human midget Naruto. Now what was going to happen to me? Wrinkly human would find out who I was. I did want to talk to other humans besides Naruto, but that was after I learned more about them, and made sure that I would not be sent back to my world. I did not want to be revealed now. But of course I would be revealed. Great.

Author's note: Somehow…I am not happy with this chapter. Oh well, I tried.