Chapter 9: Family Bonds
(The Next Day)
Me and Karin woke up again the next morning, this time very early.
"Onii, what time is it?" Karin asked as she rubbed her eyes awake.
Rubbing my own eyes I saw what time it was on my alarm and told her
"It's 10:15 AM."
"Wanna rest a little more?" Karin asked.
"Nah I think it's best we get up now" I responded.
"Alright" Karin said with both a yawn and a stretch at the end. "What day is it today?"
"Sunday" I replied with a stretch.
"So tomorrow you go back to school?"
"Yeah."
"Then yeah let's get up and watch a movie in the living room?"
"Don't you wanna freshen up first?" I questioned her.
"Good point" She said back.
"There's three bathrooms in this house so pick one and use it."
"Got it."
"Also, what movie do you wanna watch?" I asked.
Karin just smiled beautifully at me before saying
"You already know."
I just smiled back and said
"Yeah" before we both headed off to different bathrooms in the house.
(One Hour Later)
Both me and Karin were currently walking into the living room, getting ready to watch one of the many Princess Gale Movies.
I instantly headed to the middle of the couch and sat down to watch the movie while Karin put the movie in the disc player.
After she put the movie in the disc player, she walked over to me with the remote in hand before very shyly asking me
"Hey Onii, before the movie starts, could you do me a favor?" With a cute red hue on her face.
"Sure, anything Karin-Chan."
"Could I sit with you?" She asked me.
"Sure" I replied bluntly, not really seeing any problem since we've done this before.
She then brought out a rather large red blanket before continuing to ask
"But with this blanket around us both?"
Again, this wasn't anything out of the ordinary, as we've done this many times before, so I again responded with
"Sure."
"And..." she trailed off with an even bigger blush on her face. "Can I sit on your lap?"
Now this caught me off-guard, cuz we haven't done that in years. Last time I remember I think I was eight and she was seven when we last did this.
However, she was still my younger cousin, so I still said
"Yeah, that's no problem."
So she immediately did everything she asked to do.
She sat on my lap, wrapped a blanket around us, and then started the movie.
As the movie started, she turned her head to me and asked me for something else.
"Onii, could you wrap your arm around me?" She asked.
This was another something we haven't done in a while so it caught me off guard, but I still didn't deny.
"Sure" I replied before doing just that.
"I always feel safer in your arms" she said to me as she began to snuggle into the arm while watching the movie.
"Nice to know Imōto" I said to her as we began watching the movie.
(One Movie Later)
Once the movie ended and the credits started to roll, both me and my cousin Karin began stretching.
"I'm bored now" I said while stretching.
"Me too" she added while also stretching.
After saying this, Karin laid down on my lap and told me
"Naruto-Kun, I'm bored, pet me."
I just smiled down at my cousin before doing as she said.
I didn't realize it sooner, but Karin was purring in delight from my pampering.
After a couple more seconds of enjoying being pampered by me, Karin looked at me and asked me
"Hey, Naruto-Kun?"
"Yeah?" I replied.
"Why were you home so late last night?" She asked.
"It's a bit of a long story" I said.
"We have time" she replied.
"Alright..." I said before beginning to explain.
(Last Night)
Immediately after meeting with my -girlfriend's- parents, I found myself walking home alone.
As I was walking, I accidentally bumped into someone.
"Oh my bad" I apologized.
"No, it's my bad" the person replied before we both turned around and saw who it was.
"Hey, you're Suigetsu from Konoha GATEWAY right?" I asked him.
"Yeah, and you're Naruto Uzumaki, right?" He replied with a question of his own at the end.
"Yeah, how do you know my name?"
"I could ask you the same thing."
"I know your name because my cousin Karin always tells me about you. You're what the kids in that school call a playboy right?"
"Yep, and what else has she told you about me?" He asked cockily while brushing his hair with his left hand.
"That you asked her out like five times and she keeps rejecting you."
Instantly, all the confidence drained out of his face after he heard that.
"Shit" I heard him whisper. "I was hoping he didn't know that."
"Oh I know more than just that dude, trust me" I added.
"Like what?"
"You like seducing women and then breaking up with them shortly afterwards, but Karin is the only girl in the whole school that turned you down, more than once."
He just growled in anger at that.
"Anyways, how do you know about me?" I queried.
He just let out a sigh and then said
"Despite me being a playboy and being rejected by her several times, me and Karin are actually good friends and let me tell you, she does not stop talking about you."
"Really?" I questioned.
"Yeah, you're all she talks about."
"Wow, I didn't know that."
"Anyways though, yeah, you're exactly as she described."
"How did she describe me?" I asked.
"140 lbs, 5'9, spiky blonde hair, ocean blue eyes, and most notably, three whisker marks on both sides of your face" Suigetsu explained.
"Very specif-" I began to say before hearing a loud
"Take this!" And turning around to see what it was.
To my shock it was one of my good friends, Gaara engaging in a street fight with another one of my good friends, Kimimaro.
"Not again" I said before turning to look at Suigetsu and telling him. "Excuse me really quick."
After telling him this, I ran up to the middle of the two of them, stuck my hands out between both their chests and said
"Stop it you guys!"
It took them a while to even process the fact that they were being held back by me because of how dedicated to the fight they were, but once they processed it and looked to see who it was that was stopping them from fighting, all the anger in both their faces was instantly replaced with joy, and with a smile on each of their faces, they said
"Sorry Naruto-Kun, we didn't know you were here" before they stopped resisting me, looked at me, bowed, and then left in different directions.
Once they were both far enough away, I instantly began trying to catch my breath, relived that I wasn't collateral damage like lots of other times.
However, as I was trying to catch my breath from holding those two back, Suigetsu appeared beside me and asked me
"What the hell was that?"
"Huh?"
"Those two looked like they were about ready to kill each other, but stopped and listened to you, why?"
I just laughed lightly at this.
"Are they afraid of you or something?" He asked me
"It's actually the opposite" I told him.
"Huh?"
"They're both really good friends of mine and they respect me more than anyone else in the world, so much so that I'm the only one that they'll listen to if I tell them to stop."
"You're the only one they listen to?" Suigetsu questioned.
"Yeah" I said before knowing where he was going with this and answering it before he even asked. "Yeah, not even the teachers, their own parents, or any adults can stop them from fighting."
"Okay, I guess that makes sense" he said confusingly. "Also, you said not again, implying this happened before, so I was wondering, why do they fight so much?"
"It's kind of a long story" I said.
"Ehh, I don't really have anywhere to be" Suigetsu replied.
"You sure?"
"I'm sure."
"Okay" I said as I began to get ready to explain the whole story. "It all started back in fourth grade. Back then and even now those two are known as the toughest kids in the school. They would always get into fights with other people for the smallest reason, didn't matter if they were older or younger, and eventually because they were fighting and winning so much, they were known as the two toughest kids in middle school. However, they both wanted to be known as the toughest kid in school not one of, so Gaara and Kimimaro got into many fights ever since middle school, during, after, and even before school started, and that didn't change even the least bit when they entered high school. They both fought till they were drenched in their own blood and more than four teachers would always have to be called to separate them. Neither of them ever beat the other in a fight, every fight between them was always a tie, which they hated because what they wanted was to beat the other to officially be crowned the toughest kid in school."
"Why does it matter so much to them tho?" Suigetsu asked me.
"Their delinquents with their own gangs" I responded.
This instantly made Suigetsu widen his eyes.
"Those are delinquents from 'your' school?" He asked, emphasizing the your.
"Yeah, it's not just them though" I started. "There are multiple cliques and gangs in the school I go to. Gaara is the leader of his own gang called Suna and Kimimaro is the leader of his own gang called Oto. Those two are at the top of the top, above even the jocks in school, which is why it means so much for them to beat the other. Fights between cliques would break out pretty frequently in school, but they would happen a lot more outside of school whether it was before or after school started. All because they wanna prove who is the better and stronger delinquent. Hell, even their siblings are involved with their gangs."
"Wait, what?" Suigetsu asked in shock.
"Gaara has an older brother called Kankuro and an older sister named Temari and they're both a part of his gang, hell they're the two strongest members of his gang, excluding himself of course."
"How many siblings does Kimimaro have and what are their names?"
"Kimimaro has five younger siblings. His youngest sibling being his sister Tayuya, second youngest being one his brothers called Jirōbō, third being another brother called Kidōmaru, and both his fourth and fifth little siblings, twins named Sakon and Ukon. Like Gaara, his siblings are the five strongest members of his gang, excluding himself."
"Six on three?" Suigetsu questioned.
"Actually, when their gangs fight, Temari usually fights both Tayuya and Jrōbō while Kankuro fights Kidōmaru, Ukon, and Sakon just so that Gaara can fight Kimimaro all alone."
"You're school must be pretty rowdy" Suigetsu suggested.
"You'd be shocked" I responded.
Suigetsu simply shrugged his shoulders before turning his back and walking away. Right as he got to his seventh step though, he stopped, turned his head to the left side, and told me
"Oh and just so you know, I'm not giving up on Karin, not yet at least" before continuing to walk away.
I just rolled my eyes before turning my back and beginning to make my way back home.
(Present)
"Yeah, that's pretty much all that happened" I told Karin.
Karin couldn't help but close her eyes and giggle a little bit at the story I told her.
As she was giggling though, I inwardly thought
'Sasuke better do something before Suigetsu finally gets Karin to go out with him because like I told Sasuke, I don't want my little sister to go out with some womanizer, and plus, he's been in love with her since he was ten years old, so I hope he does something soon enough.'
As I was thinking about this, I looked through one of the windows in the living room and noticed that it was getting darker outside. Once I noticed this I looked at the TV we were watching to see what time it was. I didn't realize it at the time, but I had been talking about that story for so long that I ended up passing lots of hours just by doing that, so much so, that it was 4 PM, meaning that Ichiraku Ramen was now opening.
After noticing this I looked at Karin and told her
"It's 4 PM."
She just rubbed her eyes to try and make the laughter die down and when it finally did, she cleared her throat and said
"Okay, let's go."
So we both got up to go to Ichiraku Ramen.
(Half an Hour Later)
After half an hour of walking to Ichiraku Ramen we finally arrived there and got a couple stares which was expected since Karin was holding onto my right arm.
"Karin-Chan, maybe it's best if you let go of my arm" I told her.
"Why?" She asked.
"People are staring."
"So?"
"What?"
"Just let them think what they want to" she said with a smile.
There was no reasoning with Karin once she had her sights set on something, so I just accepted it and walked into the line with Karin holding onto my arm.
As we were waiting in line, I noticed something on the walls that looked like it'd peak Karin's interest, so I shook the arm Karin was holding onto and when she finally looked at me I motioned toward it.
We saw a poster for a meet and greet with Koyuki Kazehana and it prompted Karin to ask me
"Will you go with me?"
I of course just said
"Sure."
She smiled, let go of my arm, and then hugged me, once she broke the hug though, we heard Ayame, the daughter of the man in charge say
"Next" and saw that we were next.
Right as we were each about to order one bowl of Ramen though, Teuchi, the man in charge, put up a sign saying -ramen eating contest-. We had a look of approval amongst each other and signed up, along with about five other people in that crowded restaurant.
'I can never get over how crowded it is now' I thought as I looked at how damn near every table was taken despite the fact that the restaurant opened less than an hour ago. 'To think this place went from barely making it by to one of the three biggest and most popular restaurants in the city all because it is me, my mom, and my dad's favorite place to eat.'
As I was thinking this though, someone else wandered into the restaurant, and said
"Naruto-Kun, Karin-Chan" making both me and Karin turn around to see who it was and sure enough, it was Sasuke.
"Sasuke-Kun" both me and Karin said in confusion.
"Yeah, it's me" he replied.
"Bot to be rude, but why are you here?" Karin asked, asking the question we both had in our minds.
"Well I wanted to talk to Naruto about something yesterday but knew that yesterday he was visiting his girlfriend so instead I chose today to speak with him about it, but realized that this was around the time he'd usually go to this restaurant, so instead of going to his house I thought I'd meet him here" he explained
"What did you wanna talk to me about?" I asked.
"Actually, could we talk about this outside?" Sasuke asked me.
"Sure" I replied before looking at Karin and asking her "Would you mind signing me up?"
"Sure" she replied before doing just that.
Me and Sasuke headed out the door and once we were both outside, I asked him
"What is it?"
"Sure enough, Karin" Sasuke replied. "I wanted to ask you if you knew anything I could do to perhaps get her attention?"
"No, sorry, can't help you there" I apologized.
As I said this Sasuke looked to the side and said
"Damn" before being hit with an epiphany and asking me "What were you two signing up for just now?"
"This place is having a ramen eating contest and we were signing up for it" I said.
"That's it, maybe if I win that ramen eating contest I'll impress her" Sasuke to me before I just widened my eyes and told him
"I don't think that's such a good idea."
"Come on, how hard could it be?" He asked me. "Plus, all I have to do is at least eat more than Karin-Chan."
"That alone is a huge mountain to climb" I told him. "You're gonna have to take baby steps before you're even semi ready to get there."
"I don't care, I'm gonna do it anyways" Sasuke saud with confidence.
"Don't say I didn't warn you" I said before both me and him headed back inside.
(Ten Minutes Later)
Naruto, Sasuke, Karin, and twelve others were all seated, ready to begin the ramen eating contest.
They were specifically waiting for Teuchi to tell them all the rules and give them the signal.
Once he came out, fifteen other chefs came out and put one big, hot, steaming bowl of ramen in front of each contestant.
Karina and Naruto both licked their lips at the ramen in front of them whilst Sasuke just thought
'This is a lot more than I expected' before shaking his head and thinking 'No matter, I'll get it done either way.'
Once everything was set in place, Teuchi began explaining the rules.
"Rule number one, vomiting or getting sick means you're eliminated. Two no hitting or touching any other contestant who is eating. Lastly, three you will have ten minutes to chow down as much ramen as you possibly can. Everyone understand?" He then looked around and saw everyone nod their head in agreement. Teuchi then brought out an air horn, said "Ready…" they all brought out their chopsticks. "Set…" they all broke apart their chopsticks. "Go!"
"Honk!" Sounded the horn.
And they all began eating.
Sure enough, after one minute passed, mostly everyone was out of the equation already.
It was to be expected though, the bowls they were eating out of contained enough space for ten smaller bowls.
The only ones who stayed were Naruto, Karin, and Sasuke.
Sasuke was having a hard time finishing his first bowl.
'Damn, I really bit off more than I could chew' he thought while slurping as much ramen as he could down. 'Literally.'
It was hard enough to get through just one bowl, as one could tell by the fact that everyone else that wasn't the three listed were already holding their stomachs in pain from fullness having not even got past half the bowl.
Sasuke was determined to get through the bowl though, despite how full he was, and so he kept eating and eating and eating before eventually finishing his bowl.
'Finally!' He inwardly shouted in joy. 'One down!' He then turned his head to see Naruto and Karin and what he saw was mind blowing to him.
Naruto and Karin were inhaling and clearing their ramen bowls without any setbacks whatsoever.
They each had towers of ramen bowls by both their sides and were just inhaling them, not even chewing, just inhaling.
'He wasn't lying' Sasuke thought with wide eyes as he looked at the two relatives that were eating as if they never tasted ramen before.
"Ten seconds left" Teuchi said. "Ten, night, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, stop!"
And like that the two of them stopped.
Once they stopped, Teuchi and Ayame inspected the number of bowls the two finished since they were the only two that had more than one bowl on their table, and started counting.
"Karin Uzumaki has eaten a grand total of fifty-four bowls" Ayame stated.
"Wow, Naruto Uzumaki has eaten a grand total of fifty-five bowls" Teuchi stated.
"Damn" Karin said breathily while turning her head in frustration.
"Dattebayo!" Naruto shouted.
"First place is Naruto Uzumaki, second place is Karin Uzumaki, and third place with a grand total of one whole bowl, is Sasuke Uchiha" Teuchi announced.
Sasuke just slammed his head onto his table, frustrated at how badly the two friends of his destroyed him.
When he lifted his head back up he saw one of Teuchi's chefs looking at him with a coupon at hand.
"Your reward, one free coupon."
"Thanks" he said before taking it.
He then looked to his side and saw Karin being handed what he counted to be around twenty-twenty three coupons, and Naruto was handed fifty.
It was like salt to the wound but he toughed it out and just waited for his two friends to get up.
Sure enough his two friends did get up, walked over to him, and told him
"Come on, let's go."
All he had to say though was
"My stomach hurts too much."
After hearing this, Naruto and Karin each took an arm of Sasuke, wrapped it around their shoulder, looked Teuchi in the eyes and told him
"Thank you so much for the ramen" one last time before dragging their friend out of there.
(Outside The Restaurant)
"I told you it was too much buddy" I told him.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah" Sasuke repeated, out of breath and dazed.
"We should split up now and go home for the night" Karin said.
"You think you can walk home alone now Sasuke?" I asked him.
"Actually, could one of you two call my brother?" Sasuke asked.
"Why?" Karin asked.
"I feel too full to walk without puking" he said.
"Alright, can you hold him while I call Itachi-Kun, Onii?"
"Sure."
"Okay" Karin said before letting me go and walking away to make the phone call.
Once she was out of earshot, Sasuke asked me a question.
"Did I at least impress her?"
To which I just looked him in his now droopy eyes and said
"Honestly, kinda."
"Really?"
"Yeah, me and her have never seen anyone besides us or my mom and dad finish one bowl, so the fact that you did I'd say definitely shocked her."
"Then I'll try even harder and next time, I'll even win" Sasuke said.
"Buddy, you can do many things, but beat me in ramen eating is one thing you never will" I let him know.
"Let's see" he replied with a cocky grin.
After he said this though, Karin returned and said
"Alright, I called Itachi-Kun, he'll be here in a bit, you think you can stand on your own Sasuke-Kun?"
"Yeah I'll be fine" he replied before standing on his own and laying his back against wall.
"You sure" Karin questioned.
"Yeah I'm sure" he replied. "He doesn't live far from here after all."
"Alright" both me and Karin said with a shrug of our shoulders. "See ya Sasuke" we both added while waving at him.
He waved back and said
"See ya" before we both began making our way home.
To Be Continued...