7 2B

B.

I sat down in front of the counter of the small ramen shop. There wasn't anyone else here besides Sakura and me.

A pretty brunette who was slightly older than us walked up behind the counter and smiled at both of us. "Welcome to Ichiraku Ramen! Hi there, Sakura! Who's your friend?"

"This is Akira Uzumaki. He's new to the village," Sakura introduced me.

"Nice to meet you, new guy! I'm Ayame. And Uzumaki, huh? Any relation to Naruko Uzumaki?" She asked me.

"Maybe?" I said. I vaguely remembered Tsunade mentioning a girl named Naruko as well the day before. "We could be related. I grew up in an orphanage though."

Ayame nodded in understanding. "So did Naruko, weirdly enough. You both have the same last name and similar backgrounds. I'm sure you two would get along." Ayame said.

"Is that so?" I replied. Even if we were only distantly related, I wouldn't mind meeting some of my family. "I can look out for her when I meet her. She can even have a free meal at my restaurant because we're related." I said jokingly.

"You have a restaurant?" Ayame asked in surprise. "I'm shocked. I didn't think any new businesses would ever open in Konoha…after the attack." She said solemnly while looking down.

"Ayame's dad passed away in Orochimaru's invasion…" Sakura said next to me.

"I'm sorry to hear that." I told her. 

Ayame shook her head. " Thank you, but it's been a few years now and I've moved past it." she took a deep calming breath and smiled at us." So, what can I get my final customers?" 

Sakura looked concerned. "Final customers?" She asked Ayame.

Ayame nodded with a sigh. "I'm afraid this is the last day for Ichiraku Ramen. You two are actually my first customers in three days…I'm closing down the stand." She explained. She couldn't afford to keep the business open anymore no matter how much it meant to her and her late father.

Sakura looked devastated to hear that. "I'm so sorry, Ayame! I would have eaten here more if I knew! Naruko will be heartbroken when she comes back to the village!"

Ayame shook her head at Sakura. "One or two customers eating here more often wouldn't have changed anything, Sakura. With most of the civilians gone, the business was bound to fail eventually. I'm not sure what I'm going to do next." She said before turning to me. "I hope you can do better than I did."

I nodded solemnly. It was always sad to see a small business be forced to close down. This one especially because Sakura told me it had the best Ramen in the Elemental Nations. 

That was quite the claim, and I had been looking forward to trying it. I also thought that it was a waste for a chef of Ayame's skills to be jobless. I came to a decision.

"Hey Ayame? Why don't you come work at my restaurant starting tomorrow? I need a sous chef. I can give you a decent wage that will only go up as we get more customers." I told her. Since I was going to be getting customers from other worlds, I knew I would get more and more business in the future. Having extra staff ahead of time would be a smart move.

Ayame was taken aback by my suggestion. "...You're not trying to hire me out of pity or anything, are you?" She asked hesitantly. "Can you even afford to hire a second chef after just opening your own place?"

"At the very least, I can afford to pay you for a year." I reassured her. I had some money saved up and didn't even use all of my loan money yet. 

Ayame smiled at me slyly. "And you're not hiring me just to get into my pants either?" 

Sakura and I sputtered at the same time. "Ayame! That's hardly appropriate talk!" Sakura scolded her and Ayame giggled.

"O–of course not. Not that you aren't beautiful, but I really was only thinking about recruiting a skilled sous chef. Sakura here said you make the best Ramen there is. Prove it to me, and you're hired." I told her after a slight stutter. She caught me off guard with that one…

Ayame grinned. "You want the best ramen you've ever had? Prepare yourself then!" She declared before she went into the small kitchen to start cooking for the two of us.

I turned my head back to Sakura and found her also grinning at me.

"What?" I asked her.

"That was a nice thing you did." She was looking at me fondly.

I could already smell delicious fragrances wafting out from the kitchen. From that alone, I could tell that Ayame was extremely talented.

Sakura and I sat and waited for our ramen to be prepared. We had light conversation that mostly consisted of me asking Sakura small things about the Leaf Village. Some of her answers made sense to me, while others were a bit mind-boggling.

"Wait!?" I said in surprise after Sakura finished explaining a bit about Konoha's major clans. "The clans have the right to govern themselves? With their own laws? What's the point of the Hokage then?"

"It's just how Konoha was initially set up. When the village was first founded, the first Hopkage gave out a lot of concessions to the strongest clans who agreed to join." She explained to me.

I didn't know a lot about the First Hokage, but I immediately knew that was a very stupid idea from the guy. The Leaf Village was already like its own sovereign nation…inside the Land of Fire. Now I was finding out that there were basically multiple mini sovereign nations inside the Village itself. No wonder the current Princess of the Land of Fire hated this place…

Sakura tried to reassure me that most of the clans followed the Village's laws and policies. The Nara, Akimichi and Yamanaka clans, whose members I met earlier today, were the most progressive of all the major clans in that area. She did warn me to be wary of the Hyuuga clan though. Apparently they were a bunch of "stuck up assholes" who still practiced actual slavery.

With their own family members of all things…

That was beyond messed up. If any of their members showed up at my restaurant in the future and tried to cause a scene, I would just ban the whole lot of them.

Sakura and I decided to steer clear of heavy conversation topics after that. 

Today was my successful grand opening! I wanted to celebrate and only talk about fun things! 

"So, Sakura… you're a doctor right? What's the weirdest thing you had to treat someone for?" I asked her.

Sakura giggled at my topic change before she blushed a bit. "I don't know if I'm supposed to say…" She trailed off with a grin. "It was really embarrassing for the guy."

"That just makes me want to hear it even more!" I said. 

Sakura pondered for a moment. "Well… I suppose it's fine as long as I don't mention any specific names."

And I promise to never tell anyone else." I said. 'Unless it's really really funny…' I added in my head.

Sakura started. "Ok. This is the weirdest case I've had this year. We have a certain Kunoichi in this village who's obsessed with snakes…"

"I like where this is going already!"

She giggled and continued. "This kunoichi has snakes all over her house! Like everywhere! She keeps them as pets and even uses them when she fights. Well, one night she happened to get a bit drunk at a bar and brought a man home with her."

"Did he know about the snakes?" I asked

She laughed. "He did not know about them! When they got to her house it was dark and all the lights were off apparently. They were just about to start getting busy," Sakura said with a blush, "...When one of Anko's snakes thought that the man was attacking its mistress! It jumped up and bit the man directly on his…you know."

Sakura just mentioned the woman's name accidentally but didn't seem to realize… Either way, I was already cackling. "Was the snake venomous!? What happened next?"

Sakura blushed again. "It took us 8 hours of surgery to save his 'tool.' The snake was VERY venomous. We managed to save 'it' in time from necrosis, but it was a very close thing. He peed in screaming agony for months afterwards…"

"That poor bastard…" I said. I reached onto the table and picked up a small cup of Sake that Ayame had brought out to us while we were talking. I held it up. "To crazy stories and even crazier snake ladies! Cheers! I hope I can have some crazy stories like that one soon." 

Sakura smiled at me as our glasses connected. "Trust me, this village is crazy. You will definitely have some if you stay here long enough!"

XXX

Thanks for reading! Watch out for snakes!