Getting back up CH4

Ichiraku Teuchi and his daughter Ayame was picking their jaws off the floor as they looked at Naruto devouring bowls after bowls of ramen as if it was the end of the world. He was currently at his 15th bowl and no signs of stopping. It was unbelievable. Their favorite customer usually stops at 10 or 15 bowls but now he exceeded his usual limit and didn't show signs of stopping anytime soon

They were brought out of their shock when Naruto asked for another bowl, which they hurriedly complied to make sure that their number one customer stayed with them and not bring business anywhere else; though Naruto already told them before that nothing can ever beat their heavenly ramen concoctions and have no plans of changing his preference anytime soon.

After an hour, Naruto burped unabashedly and laid down his 23rd bowl of ramen down on the table and let out a hearty sigh. His previous tiredness seems to have disappeared after each bowl of ramen and now he was feeling an over-abundance of energy that would be perfect for his personal training later on.

He didn't even complain that his 'gama-chan' took quite a hit He was just too hungry to think about his savings

"That was great Teuchi-oji-san. Your ramen is the BEST exclaimed Naruto after releasing another loud burp which caused both the ramen chef and his daughter to laugh.

"Of course! What do you expect? I am the BEST ramen chef in the world!" Teuchi declared with fires burning in his eyes.

"You got it old man! When I become Hokage, I will make ramen the national food of Konoha. Believe it!" said Naruto with the same fire and determination in his eyes.

Ayame just sighed as she watched his father and his surrogate brother declare their undying love towards ramen. She rolled her eyes at them and proceeded to clean up the mess.

After a few more minutes of declaring his love for ramen, Naruto bid everyone goodbye and left but not before Ayame gave him a brief hug and a kiss on the cheek which caused the poor boy to blush red like a tomato who sped out of the shop to avoid further embarrassment with Ayame's tinkling laugh following him all the way.

Damn his new found hearing.

Naruto reached his personal training group deep in the forest that surrounded Konoha. It wasn't as if Naruto wasn't allowed to use the Training Grounds the littered the village; he just wanted his training to be kept secret to avoid the ire of the Konoha public.

Unlike popular beliefs, Naruto wasn't stupid. In fact, he learned early that acting is one the best ways to avoid being beaten to a pulp or being ridiculed by his Academy teachers. So after his first year in the Academy, Naruto decided to hide his skills and intelligence under a mask of stupidity and boisterousness to pacify the public's belief. He even delved into the art of pranking just to add to the persona.

People no longer hated him for the Kyuubi, despite him not knowing about his burden, they hated him for his rather embarrassing pranks.

He was happy that it worked like a charm.

Upon arriving at his favorite training ground, he decided to think about what happened to his body. Aside from the obvious physical improvements, it seems that his senses were improved as well. He already knew about the boost he got on his hearing, smell, and taste, the latter of which further improved his ramen addiction that allowed him to break his previous record, which he also noticed as well since he doesn't usually eat that much compared to what his classmate Chouji usually eats during lunch time.

Deciding it best to test out his body through training, he started out with a few laps around the training ground to check his physical limit. He noticed that his speed has improved, as well as his stamina. When he reached his usual 5-lap limit at top speed without getting winded, he increased his pace and proceeded to just run until he got tired. He moved through the trees like a blur, avoiding upturned roots, occasional rabbits and squirrels, even jumping from one branch to another just for the fun of it – all at top speed which was ten times as fast as he used to have.

It took him a total of 3 hours before he got tired enough to stop, which was an amazing feat in itself. He dropped down on the grass and stared at the clouds while pondering the sudden improvement on his body.

He already tested out his speed and stamina so the only thing left is his strength. He spent a few more minutes to rest his tired muscles before standing up and moving to one of the bigger trees in the clearing. He relaxed himself with a few deep breath before going into the standard Academy Taijutsu stance and took a deep breath before releasing a powerful fist towards the trunk.

The results shocked him.

His fist met the trunk and pulverized the first few inches of it. At the strength he released, he didn't even feel any pain on his knuckles which was another shock to itself since his healing wasn't even that fast to begin with and he usually suffered some mild ache after releasing a strong punch on a tree or training dummy. He continued to punch the tree in earnest, increasing his strength until he reached his limit.

After 30 minutes of punching, the tree he was practicing on finally gave way and fell, releasing a loud crash the echoed throughout the clearing.

Naruto was shocked at the power of his punches. He looked at his knuckles comically then at the tree, then back at his knuckles.

He grinned.

He need to tell Hokage-jiji about this. He ran back to the village at top speed, leaving a trail of dust and dry leaves in his wake