A/N: I'm back! I've been sitting on this idea for nearly two years, and I finally feel that this is ready to get posted here and on AO3. See the note at the end for more.
Ichiraku Ramen, 1:40 pm
All Ayame Ichiraku can do is stand behind the counter and sigh, another lunch rush ending without seeing her favorite customer and, truthfully, favorite person. It's been nearly three years since Naruto Uzumaki left to go on a training trip with Jiraiya of the Sannin, and Ayame has been counting the days until her favorite blonde comes back. Ever since she met him over a decade ago, he's always been the one person who's been the focus of her attention, knowingly or not. The twenty-two-year-old girl at first viewed Naruto as a surrogate younger brother, but as he grew up that changed with him. Their relationship was always very good, especially since Naruto went to Ichiraku's at least once a day for several years; however, as time progressed, the two stepped away from being 'siblings' to something much more, even if neither readily acted upon their feelings. Teuchi Ichiraku always knew that his daughter only had eyes for Naruto, and in his eyes, the onus was on Naruto to overcome his seemingly overwhelming density when it came to the opposite sex and relationships. 'Then again, three years of traveling the world with the self-proclaimed 'super pervert' of a godfather and traveling companion may do more harm than good for Naruto's enlightenment and discovery process. I can only hope that he makes the obvious choice and dates Ayame. And I'm not trying to be selfish, either; she's been around for twelve years minimum, and arguably could be the most important person alive left in his life,' the elder Ichiraku thinks to himself while he's in the kitchen of his ramen stand, thinking fondly of both Naruto and his old teammate, Hiruzen Sarutobi. Yes, Teuchi knew the entire truth about Naruto's heritage and burden for several reasons. The most obvious is that before Naruto was born, his parents Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki frequented the ramen stand often, so the man could tell that Naruto was their son due to their near obsession with ramen, in particular, shared by the three of them. It doesn't hurt that Hiruzen told him the full truth once Naruto was kicked out of the orphanage and was given his own apartment. Once the boy started showing up, all Teuchi could do was treat him like a son of his own, especially given how the rest of the village treated him; Ayame falling for the boy was truly happenstance.
The quiet lull of the ramen stand was interrupted when the flaps covering the opening were opened, and a large smile covered Ayame's face, tears begging to fall out of her eyes. Naruto has returned, and he's definitely grown up! The seventeen-year-old boy has grown at least a foot and a half, if not more, now allowing him at least five inches of height compared to Ayame's five foot, six-inch height. The baby fat on his face has melted away, his muscle tone and definition have grown greatly but not overly so, and his fashion sense has immensely improved. He's wearing a burnt orange tee under a black jacket that seems lightweight with dark gray ANBU pants and black shinobi sandals, black medical tape wrapped from his ankles to the bottom of his knees like his Jonin sensei Kakashi Hatake. His hitai-ate is on black fabric now instead of blue and wrapped loosely around his head like a hairband, and he's wearing a sleeveless blood-red haori with black flames licking the bottom. He also has kunai and shuriken holsters on both thighs, along with a pouch for other items on the back of his right hip. His hair has grown out to mirror his father's hairstyle, while stubble that appears to not have been cleaned up in a few days lingers across his face. Ayame runs around from behind the counter and launches herself at Naruto, wrapping him in the tightest hug she can muster. "You're back, Naruto-kun! I've missed you so much!" Ayame exclaims, snuggling her head into Naruto's now-defined chest, hearing the boy's heartbeat under his soft chuckle as he returns the hug. "I've missed you too, Ayame-chan. I'm glad I missed the lunch rush, I need to talk to you about something very important." The girl looks up at her crush, whose cheeks are dusted light pink, making her heart soar even higher. "About what, Naruto-kun?" Ayame mysteriously asks, her hopes getting larger while Naruto tilts his head down and their eyes meet, love seemingly exploding out of each of them. Then, the boy does something Ayame has dreamt of for years and leans down to kiss her softly but firmly. She melts into the kiss, returning it passionately while her hands break from his torso to snake around his neck, allowing her to play with the ends of his hair and keep his head close. After a few minutes, they break apart, their foreheads touching while their eyes are locked. Naruto breaks the comfortable silence with the confession Ayame has wished for, "I love you Ayame-chan, I have for so long but never felt confident enough to tell you. Will you please be my girlfriend?" "YES!" Ayame eeps out excitedly before she kisses her now-boyfriend again. Once they break this kiss, Ayame speaks first, "Naruto-kun, I've loved you for so long too. You don't know how happy you've made me." All the blonde can do is chuckle again, lifting his girlfriend with ease by her waist. After she wraps her legs around his waist and they share another kiss, this one much more passionate than the first few, Teuchi decides to come out from the kitchen to see what caused the commotion, only to see the new lovers embracing so passionately and that breaks a smile across his face. "It's good to see you back, my boy. About time you two got together, I was wondering if I was gonna have to beat it into your head that Ayame loves you." Both Ayame and Naruto turn their heads to the older Ichiraku, their faces filling with blush but neither letting go of the other. Naruto decides to reply, "It's good to see you too, Teuchi-oji. I'm also glad that you have no reservations about us dating. Just so you know, I know all of the secrets of my past. I don't blame you or anybody else for not telling me, I'm just glad that you were so willing to help me out when I was younger." Both men share large smiles while Ayame looks a bit confused. "What does Naru-koi mean, Tou-san?" Naruto blushes at the nickname while Teuchi just smiles at the couple. "Ayame, do you remember any specific customers who came by the shop when you were little but stopped after the Kyubi attack?" Teuchi asks his daughter while Naruto gets misty-eyed, glad to get his parents' love of ramen confirmed to him personally instead of through secondhand stories. Then, Ayame looks conflicted as she replies, "Well, Minato-oji and Kushina-oba were our favorite customers until the Kyubi attack." She turns to look from her father to her boyfriend, who's still misty-eyed, which makes her eyes widen. "Naruto, they were your parents?" is all Ayame can muster in a soft tone. After he nods in affirmation, Ayame clings tighter to her boyfriend, trying to squeeze all the sadness out of him while nuzzling her face into his neck. "Oh Naru-koi, I'm so sorry about your parents. It's a good thing your new girlfriend has a few stories about them from when I was younger." "I'd love to hear about them, Ayame-chan. Perhaps tonight over dinner at my apartment around 7?" the blonde replies, making his girlfriend smile and nod before kissing him again. "I'd love that, Naru-koi. Sounds like a lovely first date."
Teuchi looks on happily before he decides he has to put on the "father of a girl threatening her boyfriend" act. After composing his face into a stern scowl, he brusquely clears his throat in a huff, making the new couple turn back to him. Naruto's face briefly flickers with nervousness before he dons a stoic mask while Ayame looks annoyed. "Tou-san! Don't you dare try this act on Naruto! We both know that he's the son you never had and if I have it my way, then he'll be your son-in-law in the future! So cut it out right now!" Naruto smiles lovingly at his girlfriend, kissing her neck and making her blush. Then, the young man faces the man who's known him the longest and looks directly into his eyes. "Teuchi-san, you know I wouldn't dare do a thing to Ayame-chan that wouldn't make her happy. Doing anything else would hurt me more than it could hurt her." Once the old man nods and heads back to the kitchen, Naruto looks at Ayame. "Now that we cleared that up, I should finally get around to my second favorite reason to come here. I would like one salt ramen and one pork ramen, my love. As much as I don't wanna let you go, I know you have to go back to work and I don't want anybody else handling my order besides you; I also think your dad may now try to poison it so I need you to watch him so he can't." The girl pouts at that, which Naruto thinks is very cute, before reluctantly unwrapping herself from her boyfriend's torso and giving him one final passionate kiss before she goes to give her dad Naruto's order. A few moments later, Naruto hears a thud from the kitchen followed by Ayame shouting at her father, "Don't you dare try to put that rat poison in Naru-koi's ramen Tou-san! If you keep this up, I'll just move in with him so I can make him his ramen whenever he wants without having to come here!" All Naruto can do is chuckle to himself, the laughter increasing in volume when Teuchi brings out the ramen, a large bump on his head while he's muttering about "defending his daughter's virtue" while Ayame is behind him, ladle in hand with a dark gleam in her eye. Once Teuchi quickly heads back to the kitchen, Ayame looks sweetly at her boyfriend and kisses his cheek before taking his left hand and entwining his fingers with hers on her right hand before they talk about what Naruto was up to with Jiraiya during the last three years. While the new couple is engrossed in their conversation, Teuchi simply looks on with a fond smile on his face, happy for both his daughter and pseudo-son that they found their happiness.
A/N 2: Hello, and thank you for reading! Like I said in the opening note, I first wrote this idea down nearly two years ago. Personally, I like writing one-shots that are in the 4-5k word count at minimum, but I felt that there wasn't anything else I could add to this, and this has been 95% the same since like the beginning of the year. For example, I have at least 3 or 4 one-shots that are over 10k words, and another handful or so that hover between 5-10k words. I have plenty of Naruto stories, but I also have Harry Potter, My Hero Academia, and Horimiya. If anybody has suggestions for what they want to see, please leave them in the comments or message me!