The Dark Side of Akatsuki. Chapter 18

Title: A Food Fight Without Honor or Humanity

-Urasoe no Machi-

-Evening-

Naruto grabbed his rumbling stomach, grimacing. The sun was starting to set, and he had been at this for too long already. Lights were flickering on throughout the town, and certain stores set torches alight near their sign, which seemed to be something of a tradition here. It was still bright out, but the alleys were falling into deep shadow, which just helped him move about more easily.

Spreading his clones through the city for information, Naruto had heard an awful lot of griping, but that was about it. A few random thugs which he'd beaten into submission, but, hey, that was certainly nothing new. The problem was that, whoever these weirdos they were looking for were, they blended in reasonably well. It was a fairly large town. He still wasn't sure what he should be hunting for, exactly.

Naruto's use of the Shadow Clone technique afforded him a few benefits. One of them was that he wouldn't have to feel bad for grabbing a bite to eat, since his clones could still be out and about, covering the town. He was starving.

Luckily, salvation was in sight. Naruto's spirits soared as he saw it. A ramen booth, the curtain obscuring its inside was decorated with an octopus tentacle stuffed into a bowl of delicious, salty broth. Smoke and steam were billowing from the rear of the booth, and it smelled absolutely divine.

He needed no further prompting. He dashed to the booth and shouldered his way inside.

He was in heaven. As he pushed through the curtain, he was blasted in the face with a solid wall of hot, savory air, each breath hinting at a different ingredient just waiting for him to come and get it.

Naruto needed very much to be on the outside of as much ramen as he could be as quickly as possible.

Stepping through the cloud of steam, he finally got a good look at the inside of the place. Five stools at a high counter that separated the customers from the cook. There was only one other customer in the place, stuffing his face and slurping noisily. He already had a few empty bowls in front of him.

The cook was a weathered-looking older guy with a round, bulbous nose, wearing a headband to keep the sweat out of his eyes in the hot, humid air. Judging by the look of it, that headband was dying a hero's death, day by day, in execution of its duty.

Naruto stepped up and grabbed a seat three down from the other customer at the end, smacked a hefty wad of money onto the counter, and called out, "Heya! I want one of anything you can give me! I'm starving, so just keep 'em coming, alright?"

The old cook gave him a weird look. If Naruto didn't know better, he might have confused it with the way people used to look at him back when everyone in Konoha hated him, but that didn't make sense. One of the nice things about going out on missions far away was that absolutely no one in a town like this knew who he was.

Still, the guy looked a bit worried about something, nodding glumly before grabbing the empty bowls from in front of the other customer and returning to work.

Naruto waited, reminiscing on recent events. It had been a long, long year, and honestly he wasn't sure where things stood right now. Team Seven were great friends, even though Sakura couldn't be here with them now, but the death of the Hokage felt like it sort of signified the end of all the normal stuff. All three of them were Chuunin now, and Kakashi himself was being pushed around by people wanting him to be Hokage. He'd heard they were even hunting his master, Jiraiya, of all people.

Naruto smirked. What a joke that would be.

Then his smile dropped from his face. After all this was over, would Team Seven even take missions with each other any more?

Thoughts wandering, a minute or so passed, with only the noises of the shop to fill the air. Pans sizzling, water boiling, knives hitting wood, and the slurping and chomping from his right. Eventually, though, his thoughts were interrupted as the cook plopped a bowl in front of him. Naruto looked up.

"Thanks, man! Smells great!" he said.

The cook just gave him that worried look again, glancing down at the table before rushing back to his tools. When Naruto looked down at his bowl, it was nowhere to be found.

Admittedly, he had been distracted, but he had been sure he'd been given a bowl. Weird. Another minute passed before the cook returned carrying a replacement.

"Awright, yer food's ready, kid," he began, voice a bit strained and thick with an unfamiliar accent, "Just be careful, 'cause-"

"Hey, thanks a lot! I got it, it's cool!" Naruto interrupted. Oh, steamy, wonderful, salty ramen. "Yep, you gotta start with seafood in a town like this!"

Naruto clapped both hands together and closed his eyes in a quick prayer of thanks. "Itadakimasu!"

When he opened his eyes again, the bowl was gone.

"Wha- what?! Hey, what's the big deal?!" he shouted.

The cook just gave him another odd look, his nervousness seeming to intensify, then disappeared back to the kitchen without another word.

Naruto was bewildered by this exchange. His bowl had been taken in just a second, and he hadn't seen or heard anything. It couldn't have been the cook, because he hadn't had the bowl with him afterwards. It couldn't have been the other customer, because he was sitting at least six feet away and hadn't stopped slurping and chewing for a single moment in that time. In fact, it was even louder now, if anything. Struck by a sudden suspicion, Naruto examined the other occupant of the shop carefully.

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