5 ichiraku ramen

Chapter 5: Ichiraku Ramen

After taking a quick bath in the clear stream, Naruto packed his luggage and decided to return to the village.

"Aw man. It's been two weeks already since I've started my training. I think I might die if I couldn't get a bowl of ramen by the end of this day." Naruto grumbled while packing his stuff.

For the past two weeks, Naruto only ate the wild animals and fruits gathered by his clone. After a week of eating organic and fresh foods, Naruto found out that his body is as fit as a fiddle. His complexion looking good, his cheeks are rosy, and his heartbeat are steady.

"Eating healthy is fine and all but I still can't live without my ramen." Naruto declared.

.........

As soon as Naruto returned to the village, he dashed directly to Ichiraku ramen which is situated near the heart of the village. He started grinning like an idiot when he saw the small ramen shop.

"What a nostalgic place this small restaurant is. Old man Teuchi could never have imagined how famous his ramen shop would be in the future. And it's all thanks to the free promotion by yours truly, the seventh Hokage." Naruto snickered.

Naruto pulled open the curtains near the entrance to enter, sat down and waited. He took a deep breath and inhale the thick smell of ramen broth in the air.

It didn't take long before a young and slender lady with long dark brown hair, large black eyes and fair skin to come out. The pretty girl was Ayame. She was wearing a white uniform with her sleeves folded up, coupled with a dark blue apron tied near her waist. On her head was a bright white bandana.

Ayame is a kind hearted and cheerful young woman. She consider Naruto as one of her favorite regular customer. She is a hard-working woman, always doing her best to serve everyone with a smile.

'Welcome to Ichiraku --. Oh? It's you Naruto. I haven't seen you for a while now. Where have you been playing for the last two weeks?" Ayame asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I was training near the outskirt of the village, Ayame neechan. I think it's about time for me to start training seriously. After all, my end goal is to be the Hokage!" Naruto replied with a childlike voice.

Ayame watched Naruto's expression with a smile on her lips. A bit of doting can be seen in her eyes.

"Yes yes, I know you will be a fine shinobi someday. But still, don't forget to eat and always be careful during your training. You shinobi always do dangerous stuff when training." Ayame grumbled.

Naruto's heart was filled with warmth. He saw the reactions of Ayame clearly. In this world, besides Iruka sensei, Ayame and his father Teuchi were the only one in the village that never look at him with despise. In fact, they cherish Naruto just like he is one of their family.

Only when one lost what they possessed will they learn to treasure it; only those who are left with nothing will know how precious everything is.

In his previous life, after the start of the war and humanity is on the brink of defeat, Ayame and her father, who was already 80 years old at that time, never stopped providing foods and comforting words to the despaired shinobi.

It was them who, during his arduous and hardest moments, in those days that he was mourning for the death of his loved ones, stayed by his side and giving him motivational support to continue fighting in the war.

It didn't take long for a middle-aged man with brown short hair and tanned skin to come out with a big bowl of ramen. He was wearing white garments while donning a chef hat with the Ichiraku logo embroidered on it.

"Here's your tonkotsu ramen, lad. Been a while since I last saw you. I thought you already found a better ramen place than mine?" Teuchi asked jokingly.

"Hahaha, stop joking around old man. You cooked the best ramen in the world! I've been training a lot these days and right now I'm dying for your ramen."

"Oh?" Teuchi eyes softened and he went back to making ramen after a nod.

Naruto took the bowl, broke the chopsticks and started eating. He first started with the noodles and started to slurp it up. When the first noodle entered his mouth, he felt his tongue exploded with flavors.

The ramen was soo good. The winning formula can be attributed to the creamy smooth classic pork-based tonkotsu soup, topped with Ichiraku's original red pepper sauce mixed with 8 type of different herbs and spices.

"Ah. It tasted just like how I remember it used to be. The noodle is springy yet not overly chewy. It soaked up the deep flavor of soy and mushroom in the broth as well as bit aftertaste of pork."

Naruto kept slurping the noodles and started to drink the broth, it had a creamy texture to it that made the taste keep lingering in his mouth and not leave, He didn't even care anymore and started inhaling the contents, it didn't take long for the bowl to be completely emptied.

"What a good meal" Naruto thought. He really want to order another bowl of ramen but he already spent almost all of his money on camping supply two weeks ago.

Suddenly.

"Um. E-excuse me. One bowl of m-miso ramen please."

Naruto slowly raised his head and breathing in deeply.

The voices of girls before they changed was still very different as compared to how they were after puberty. Yet, the small voice sounded like music to Naruto's ears, like a heavenly melody.

As soon as Naruto glanced at her, tears began to form and dripping from the corner of his eyes.