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Teuchi Ichiraku was not a shinobi. He had never wanted to be one.
His family had been among the first civilians to settle in Konoha. Before that, during the bloody Warring States Era, civilians had no real place amongst shinobi unless you were a noble. But the First Hokage had understood that a village needed more than warriors to survive.
So the civilians came.
Farmers, craftsmen, traders, and artisans. The Ichiraku came all the way from the Shina province of the Fire Nation, carrying little more than a worn recipe for shina soba and the hope that a better life was waiting for them here. Over the years, their recipe had changed until shina soba became something else altogether.
Ramen.
The man rose before the sun with a stretch and cold water to his face. Teuchi wore a white tunic and red apron.
"Ayame chan. Time to wake up."
A groan from upstairs.
She was not his by blood. He had found her the night of the Kyuubi attack with nowhere to go and no one left to take her. He had not thought twice about it. That was just the kind of man Teuchi was. The mornings, though, were a different battle entirely for his little girl.
"Can't we open later?"
"The early bird gets the worm."
Thankfully the man had set up shop in his house. The kitchen greeted him with the low creak of floorboards underfoot. The smell of yesterday's broth still hanging faintly in the air. And the quiet that only existed in that hour before the village woke. He worked through the prep without thinking, his hands knowing exactly where to go.
Their shop was small.
Six seats, if you counted generously. Most people ordered to go rather than eating at the shop. Teuchi did not mind either way. There was something right about a place that did not try to be more than it was.
A bowl of good food waiting for you at the end of a long day, or the beginning of one.
Teuchi waited for the first customer of the day.
It was going to be Naruto.
Rain or shine, the boy came in like clockwork for his breakfast, a bowl of tonkotsu ramen before heading off to the academy.
Teuchi always made sure to use the freshest ingredients for him.
He still remembered the first time Naruto had walked in six years ago. A rainy day with no other customers. Just a small blonde boy standing at the entrance, holding a few coins in his hands. Teuchi had hesitated because of the jinchuriki status. But when he looked at the boy's hungry expression, that was not a demon standing in his shop.
That was a hungry kid.
From that day on, Naruto had been his most loyal customer.
The curtains rustled.
Teuchi opened his mouth to call out his usual greeting, but the words stopped. The person who walked in was an armored midget.
"What can I do for you, sir?"
"Oji-san, why are you talking to me like that?"
Teuchi went still, recognizing that voice. "Naruto?"
Ayame came in from the back, still tying her apron, and said the same thing at almost the same moment. Naruto's helmet vanished with a shimmer of some kind of jutsu Teuchi could not begin to comprehend. Ayame, predictably, looked like she had just seen something wonderful.
"Teach me that jutsu," Ayame said. "So I would never have to get dressed myself in the morning again."
"Sorry, Ayame nee chan, I can't."
Ayame looked appropriately devastated. Teuchi smiled and looked at the boy's face covered in sweat, grime, and dirt. "Sorry about this, I was just training with Iruka sensei for the last hour."
"That's fine. Now come to the back and clean up," Ayame said, already steering him by the shoulder before he could argue.
Teuchi caught her eye and gave her a look that said clearly: do not you dare rope him into tasting your experiments again. Ayame had a habit of using Naruto as her personal test subject whenever she was working on a new ramen recipe. Naruto, for his part, never seemed to mind, which only encouraged her.
"How did the graduating exam go?" Teuchi said, setting a bowl down.
"I passed through unconventional ways. But I'm a genin now."
That was all Ayame needed. She wrapped both arms around him, squeezing hard enough that Naruto made a strangled noise against her shoulder.
"One small step to becoming the next Hokage," the older girl said into his hair.
Naruto pulled back, gave a small smile, and turned to the sink.
"Unconventional ways," Teuchi repeated, pouring the broth slowly. "Do I want to know?"
"Probably not."
"Are you okay?"
"I'm here, aren't I?"
Teuchi set the ladle down. "Fair enough."
For a moment there was only the sound of running water. Ayame caught Teuchi's eye from across the counter. He gave the smallest shake of his head.
Something was off.
Naruto always talked about being the Hokage. So what was that quiet response?
"You doing alright, kid?" Ayame asked, keeping her voice easy.
"Fine."
"You don't look fine."
"I just haven't slept."
"Naruto."
The boy splashed his face again. Gripped the edge of the sink. When he finally turned around, the armor was gone, swapped out for his orange shirt, and without the plating he looked younger. He sat down on the stool and looked at the bowl Teuchi set in front of him.
For a long moment he did not touch it.
"I found out about the fox."
Teuchi's ladle hovered over the second bowl, broth threatening to spill over the rim. He set it down carefully and placed it beside the first without a word. "A bowl for Naruto Uzumaki."
"Not for the fox," Naruto said quietly, like he was afraid of what the answer might be.
"No," Teuchi said. "For the champion of last year's ramen eating competition."
The smile that broke across Naruto's face was like a sunrise over a rooftop. He picked up the bowl with both hands and started sliding ramen into his mouth with the focused urgency of someone who had not eaten in days.
Teuchi could barely keep pace.
"What are you two even talking about?" Ayame said, looking between them.
Naruto slowed. Set the bowl down.
Teuchi could see it happening in real time. The pull to tell her. To stop carrying it alone. It was written plainly across his face.
Teuchi quietly set a glass of water in front of him.
"Eat more slowly," he said. "You'll choke."
"Dad. What's going on?"
Teuchi gave her his best unbothered smile. "Don't worry about it. It's a man thing. Now do me a favor and go to my room and bring my journal, would you? I want to give Naruto something."
She looked between them once more, puzzled, then shrugged and disappeared down the hall.
"Some things are better left unsaid, Naruto."
"Wouldn't that be lying?"
"Sometimes lying is a kindness."
Teuchi hated how true that felt even as he said it. "Ayame was four years old during the Kyuubi attack. She doesn't remember it, and that is the only good thing to come out of that night. She doesn't need to be reminded of it, not like this."
Teuchi could hear the weight of it settling on him.
"Would she see me as the fox?"
"No," Teuchi said without hesitation.
Naruto did not look convinced.
Teuchi reached into the prep tray and placed something carefully into the fresh bowl he was building. A fishcake cut and shaped into the rough likeness of a boy with spiky hair and whiskers.
"Ayame made that a month ago, when she heard graduation was coming. She wanted you to have something special, fully believing in you."
Naruto's eyes went a little glassy.
He did not say anything for a long moment, just looked at the small handmade thing sitting in his broth. Teuchi had known about the Kyuubi for most of that time and had never once looked at him differently. Ayame had carved his face into a fishcake a month before he even graduated.
The math was not complicated if Naruto was willing to do it.
Slowly, the tension in his shoulders came down.
Ayame came back with a journal in hand and stopped when she saw Naruto holding up the fishcake with a teary eyed smile.
"Thanks, Ayame nee chan."
She turned to her father with an expression of pure betrayal.
Teuchi scratched the back of his head.
"Sorry."
Ayame stared at him a moment longer, then reached into the journal and pulled out a small folded slip of paper.
"This is a one hundred free bowls of ramen coupon from my father. But since he gave you my gift, I'll give you his," she announced. "Redeemable whenever you want."
Naruto looked at the coupon in one hand and the fishcake in the other. He held them both carefully, like they were something he did not want to drop.
"Thank you."
It was barely above a whisper but it filled the whole shop anyway.
Ayame ruffled his hair and Teuchi set a fresh steaming bowl down in front of him.
"Eat up," Teuchi said. "You've got a whole shinobi world to introduce yourself to."
Naruto set both gifts down gently, picked up his chopsticks, and grinned. "You'd better start on the next fifty bowls right now, dattebayo. I've been flying for days and I have an appetite to match."
Neither of them knew what flying had to do with anything, but they had learned long ago not to ask Naruto follow up questions for the sake of their sanity.
Teuchi looked at Ayame and said, "Get more pork out of the back."