"Finally, work is done. I could eat your food now Uncle Teuchi!" Ren shouted as he entered Ichiraku.
"Oh, Ren! Looks like a gruesome day at the hospital again?" Teuchi said to Ren.
"*Sigh* You know it Uncle Teuchi, same as usual please." Ren said as he ordered the food.
"All right, sit tight. Ayame!" Teuchi shouted and a girl took a chair, grabbed two bowls and passed the bowls to her father. Teuchi patted her daughter's head as thanks as he prepared the original ramen as he put in the fresh noodles and the toppings then poured the hot soup stock then served it to Ren. Yoruichi jumped into the counter and barricaded her bowl to stop Ren from getting her toppings.
"Your pet sure is intelligent and a glutton as always." Teuchi said as he watched Yoruichi had her back to Ren. Ayame on the other hand has been staring at Yoruichi with sparkling eyes.
"Papa, can I have one too?" Ayame asked pointing to Yoruichi.
"If we find one, okay?" Teuchi said and patted her head again.
"Uncle Teuchi! One more! No, 2 more! Puwaaah." Ren shouted as he drank the soup from the bowl.
The duo continued filling up their bellies while Teuchi emptied their wallets.
"That was really good stuff, Uncle Teuchi!" Ren said as stacks of bowls were placed in the ramen counter.
"*Sigh* Have you not eaten for days? You look like starving everyday." Teuchi said to Ren with a sigh. He can't believe that someone with a small body like Ren could eat almost 20 bowls of ramen in one seating. If not for him telling Ren that he was gonna close up, he would still order some bowl. Ayame had already fallen asleep on the bar counter so Ren stopped stuffing himself with food.
"Uncle Teuchi, hospital food tastes like water. It doesn't taste good at all. Your ramen is human food. Food that is supposed to be eaten by humans. Hospital food... I don't know how they could stomach that." Ren said while Teuchi just chuckled at Ren's compliment.
"All right. Uncle, let me help you carry Ayame." Ren offered to help Teuchi, as the last customer.
"You don't have to." Teuchi said as he declined his offer but Ren insisted. Teuchi finally accepted as he had to clean the bar up and wash everything clean.
Ren placed Ayame on his back and received the keys of Teuchi's house on top of the ramen bar. Ren opened the house and marveled at the simplicity of Teuchi's house. He placed Ayame on the bed and immediately head down. He saw Teuchi scrubbing the bar counter clean. He could see Teuchi hardworking for Ayame and himself but he could see in Teuchi's eyes, he was not tired at all. He couldn't help but ask Teuchi a question.
"Uncle Teuchi, you always open your shop really early then close the shop late at night. You have to make your noodles for hours, make the soup stock, serve your customers, and take care of Ayame at the same time, yet, I couldn't see tiredness in your eyes." Ren said as he reached out to give the keys back to Teuchi.
"Hmmm. How do I say this, maybe because I enjoy making ramen. This shop, was a shared dream with my wife and I. My wife loved ramen so I decided to learn making ramen and found myself enjoying making it. Unfortunately..." Teuchi stopped as he remembered something sad.
"You okay, Uncle Teuchi?" Ren asked.
"I'm fine. My wife died after giving birth to Ayame. After her death, I worked hard to make some money and built this place in honor of our promise." Teuchi said as he patted Ren's shoulder and went back to cleaning the bar counter. Ren left the place after that as different thoughts appeared on his mind.
'Something I enjoy, huh...' Ren thought with a slight smile on his face.
"Wipe that creepy ass smile of yours." Yoruichi snorted.
"Hmm? Why should I?" Ren said as he faced the cat on his shoulder, only to receive a scratch mark.
"Be careful Ren. I don't know what that Danzo is planning. In any case, I need you to be vigilant of your surroundings." Yoruichi seriously said.
"Yeah. Don't worry, I plan on keeping myself a civilian. Don't wanna dabble in this village's politics." Ren said as they went home. After returning home, Ren watered all the seedlings that he had planted in his backyard and those in the flower pots.
Ren then took a cold bath, as usual, the troublemaker shamelessly joined him in the bath. Ren was already used to it and he had no qualms about seeing her body anymore. He knows that the more he played along with Yoruichi's pranks, the more she would mess with him. Ren immediately hit the bed after dressing up.
The next morning, Ren woke up with a naked Yoruichi as always. Ren slowly pushed Yoruichi to the side and went out. The sun was not up yet and he was surprised when he saw Kushina watering the flower pots.
"You don't have to do this everyday, Kushina-dono. Let me do it." Ren said and he received a knock on his head.
"I told you many times to call me Kushina-nee already." Kushina reprimanded Ren.
"Even so, you don't have to do this. Its still early in the morning. You should go rest more." Ren said and received a knock on his head again.
"I'm not a disabled or an old individual that needs to rest. I'm still fair and young, ya know." Kushina said to him.
"Alright alright. Let me finish it." Ren said and Kushina was about to knock him on the head but Ren was prepared this time and dodged.
"Kushina-dono, if you knock my head so many times, I might turn into an idiot. I don't want to be one." Ren said and dodged another punch from Kushina. Ren was about to speak once more when Kushina's fist became faster, and deadlier surprising Ren, catching him off-guard. Electricity surrounded Ren's body and his hair stood up a little and he calmly dodged Kushina's fist and appeared a few meters away from Kushina as he deactivated his power.
"Hmmm. Good. Looks like you can protect yourself." Kushina said and Ren was confused why she would attack him.
"It wasn't long since you arrived in Konoha so you might not know a lot, but, the village has its own internal conflicts and problems. Since you are the head surgeon of the hospital, many people who are aiming for that spot would envy you and use underhanded methods to attain your position, something like that, you know the gist of it. They will not willingly hand over an important position to someone who's an outsider even if you have the skills. So be careful Ren, you still have lots of years ahead of you. Also..." Kushina paused as she walked over to Ren and slung her arm to Ren before turning it into a headlock, her hair raising up.
"... Its Kushina-nee for you!" Kushina, with a smile, knocked another fist on top of Ren's head.
Minato who watched everything from the start was surprised by Ren, especially his speed. He then looked at his lover who had a 'kind' smile, rubbing her knuckles on top of Ren's head causing him to chuckle.
"Alright... Kushina-nee, let me go!! I'm going to turn into an idiot sandwich!" Ren said as Kushina let him go from the headlock. She had a grin on her face as well.
'*Sigh* there's no helping it, they're going to know about it anyway.' Ren thought back to when he activated Godspeed: Speed of Lightning.
"Where are you going?" Kushina asked.
"Having an early jog while buying some breakfast on the way home?" Ren said but Kushina had already pulled him in her house.
"You can have breakfast here. I'm making a soup stock by the way. Maybe you can have a taste of my homemade ramen." Kushina said to Ren as he had a look of expectation towards Kushina's dish.
"I've heard that the Hokage has invited you to have some tea and I've also heard an interesting rumor about you." Minato said which piqued Ren's interest. Usually he wouldn't care about rumors but this is coming from Minato so it should be really interesting at least. Kushina's ears also perked up, waiting for Minato to speak.
"Well, the rumor about you goes like this..." Minato then told Ren about the rumor. Kushina laughed so hard after hearing it while Ren's face flushed red in anger.
"Who spread such blasphemous rumors?! Let me beat him in a fistfight! Orochimaru's illegitimate son?! Really?! If I found out who spread that rumor, I'll drag him around the village naked!" Ren roared while a man trying to peep on the women's bath sneezed and fell down the fence causing the women to notice him and kicked him out of the public bath.
"*Sigh* If I hadn't sneezed, maybe I could've seen their bodies... I wonder who's talking behind my back?" Jiraiya said as he wiped the blood on his nose and went on to find more 'inspirations'.