Chapter 11

Beta'd by Black Sparrow

From then on she saw Naruto two to three times a week if she spent every day in the tea house. All of their encounters were pretty similar with Shiori scolding him about his intake of vegetables and Naruto giving her cheeky answers. A few times he even dragged some of his friends with him, like this Shiori got introduced to Kiba carrying a tiny Akamaru, Shikamaru and Chouji, who she scolded just as much about eating vegetables when they tried to choose the boxes with more meat. They moaned about Shiori trying to force vegetables into them but readily complied, after all they were too used to it by their mothers. Their complaints were more of a token protest than anything else, especially after they had eaten her sweets for the first time and also received pieces for free like Naruto if they chose a Bento Box filled with vegetables. Shiori had a horrible weakness for children and so she told herself that she was just binding future customers to her tea house.

For a month nothing changed in this routine until one day Naruto dragged the Hokage into the tea house.

As soon as she recognized the head of Konoha Shiori urged Sora to get the frozen and excited staff moving before she went over to the table of the Hokage and handed over the menu cards. She returned Naruto's cheerful greeting while she nodded respectful at the Hokage. When they were ready to order, Shiori gave Naruto a pointed glance when he chose once more the meal with the fewest vegetables. After some light pouting he changed his order and grumbled about icky vegetables while Shiori turned to the Hokage to take his order. The blue eyed civilian didn't miss the sharp eyes that didn't leave her form the whole time while she forwarded the order and then took care of some of the other tables in her corner. When she returned with their orders the Hokage watched her like a hawk when she finally unloaded their plates in front of them and refilled their cups with tea and juice. Naruto dug into the food as soon as it was placed in front of him while the Hokage kept a watchful gaze on the small blonde boy for the first few moments before he himself started to eat.

Hiruzen had to give it to Inoue-san her food and service was excellent, none of his shinobi had exaggerated when they had talked about the new tea house close to the stadium. The Sandaime had already considered visiting it himself when his monthly visit with Naruto was on his timetable.
After Naruto had told him about a place that while it wasn't making ramen it was still making pretty good stuff, Hiruzen had been instantly on guard. Which of those damned civilians was now taking advantage of Naruto? Frustrated that he had to grin and bear it, that the civilians thought they could do with Naruto what they wanted, the Sandaime promised himself to ruin the restaurant should he notice even the slightest bit of hostileness from the staff and owner.

So when he was led to Mariko's Sandaime was in a bit of a dilemma, he didn't want to close down one of the few establishments that made his ninja comfortable but he still held stubbornly onto the thought that if they treated Naruto unfairly they would deserve to be ruined.

The woman that served them seemed to know Naruto pretty well because she answered his cheerful greeting with one of her own without the slightest bit of subliminal anger; she seemed to be genuinely happy to see the little blonde knucklehead. The next occurrence was even stranger, when Naruto chose the meal with the most meat just as Hiruzen had anticipated instead of just taking the order the waitress had scolded at Naruto until the boy had sighed and pouted before ordering the meal with the most vegetables in it. The old Hokage was so shocked that only his more than half of a century long experience let him hold onto his benevolent mask and place his own order.

For the rest of the time spent in the restaurant the Sandaime watched the young waitress buzz around the different tables and take care of even the most obscure orders and wishes without batting an eyelash. The other staff around her was doing exactly the same with only slightly inferior poker faces. Whoever this Inoue-san was, she knew what she was doing concerning her customer service for ninja, no wonder the tea house was so popular.
When their waitress removed the plates after they had finished Naruto looked expectantly at their young waitress and was nearly vibrating in his seat, as an answer the woman's lips twitched and she told him to go and choose, whatever she meant with that before she turned back to him once more and asked politely if he too would like some dessert.

The old man looked appraisingly at the young civilian before he smiled genuinely and said, "Surprise me."

Shiori nodded politely before she followed Naruto to the counter where he was already going through his options before choosing a strawberry shortcake. Since the first time she had given him that particular dessert he had nearly been obsessed with it, for the Hokage Shiori chose a slightly less sweet green tea cake that would fit perfectly with his drink. The tea house owner sent Naruto back to the table and returned only minutes later with their desserts before she returned to the other tables. Even if she was interested in how the Hokage would react to the foreign desserts she wouldn't break her own rules and stare at him while he wanted to enjoy his food. And so Shiori only returned after the unlikely pair had finished with their food to ask if they had another wish.

"Yes young lady, would it be possible to speak with your employer?" the Hokage asked kindly.

Naruto beside him started to giggle before he grinned up at his grandfather figure and said, "But jii-chan, Shiori-nee-chan is the boss!"

"He is right Hokage-sama. I am Inoue Shiori, the owner of Mariko's," Shiori simply stated.

"Interesting," the old man murmured before he continued, "I just wanted to compliment you on your excellent service and unique food, I have never tasted anything like this before."

Shiori blushed a bit before she said, "Thank you for the compliment Hokage-sama." She bid the two farewell and returned to serving the different tables.

When Shiori walked home on the next day she was stopped by an ANBU member who informed her that she was summoned to the Hokage tower. After giving her approval to be touched the ANBU operative shunshined Shiori to the entrance hall of the tower, Shiori felt slightly sick and unbalanced when they reappeared in front of the tower, the ANBU operative had to steady her before he let her go, from the place in front of the entrance area she was led up into the office of the Hokage. A strange calm had taken a hold of the black haired civilian woman on her way up, the Hokage wanted to speak to her, that was fine she didn't have anything to hide concerning her business or her interaction with Naruto.

So when the Hokage just looked at her for a while Shiori just smiled politely and stayed quiet, after all she was used to stranger behavior of her clients and even the searching gaze of the Hokage wouldn't make her break protocol and address him first.

"So tell me Inoue-san how do you like living in Konoha," the Hokage asked randomly.

Shiori's smile became quite a bit more genuine before she answered, "I like it here Hokage-sama, it is more of a home than my birth village has ever been."

Sarutobi nodded at that before he suddenly completely changed direction. "So tell me why you keep serving Naruto when you are most likely aware that most people don't like him."

Shiori couldn't help but snort before she said, "I know that he is a pranking and attention seeking little brat with too much energy and too little patience and yes, I know how annoying he can get sometimes but that really isn't a reason to bar him from eating at my tea house. Naruto is a paying customer and the customer is king, full stop. I'm sorry to say this, but most of the civilians here really need to get a hobby if a little hyperactive boy bends them so out of shape." The last sentence was said with an eye roll.

"So you don't even care if you lose business for catering to Naruto?" the Hokage asked somewhat confused and apprehensive, what was her true reason for treating Naruto so kindly?

Shiori looked disbelieving at the Hokage, he probably hadn't seen her numbers or he wouldn't ask this question. "Losing business? Hokage-sama I cater primarily to ninja who don't seem that bothered by him, if at all and really even if I did lose business I haven't felt it yet. Quite the contrary to be honest, I will have to hire another three or four new staff members to keep up with the demands. I'm even thinking about expanding the opening hours and moving up into the second floor."

The Sandaime nodded, still not completely sure about her intentions but feeling marginally better at letting Naruto have contact with her. So without having any other reason of keeping her at his office, he wished her a pleasant evening and the ANBU that had intercepted her shunshined her home.

After her visit with the Hokage nothing of note happened for a time, well maybe the expansion of her tea house into the second floor of the building as well as the increased business hours were somewhat noteworthy.

For this occurrence Shiori trained her newest staff just as strictly as the original one. Everyone in Konoha who was seeking employment knew that she expected full concentration and impeccable manners from her staff but that she was also the by far best paying employer in the tea house business in probably the whole Fire country. Her newest staff was tested and tried during the busiest hours of the day, the change of guard shifts and after Shiori was sure that she could leave her customers to the mercies of her newest employees without them embarrassing her, she spent some more time back at her house devising new recipes and beverages as well as working on improving her home and tending to her ever expanding garden.

And then during one of those days, Hatake Kakashi literally fell into her lap.