Chapter 1: To The Past And Back

A boy, no less than 5 years of age, walked the dilapidated streets of the red light district downtown. With a ragged, oversized t-shirt as his only protection from the cold wind of the oncoming breeze of October, he strolled on the pathway to a destination not precisely known to anyone.

His amethyst eyes were dead and lifeless, fingers numb, face shrunk, his torso caving in as if he hadn't eaten for decades, he roamed the street barefoot.

Just then he saw a shop with its lights still on. A small stand with enough room for four individuals to sit in. He walked up to it and then let his feet stop walking. Turning towards the entrance of the stand he looked at the lights that glowed from within and he read the sign upwards with the minimal amount of education that he had perceived in his five years. It read 'I-Chi-Ra-Ku Ra-Men'

Yes, that was what it had written on it. He was sure in his child-like mind.

He slowly smelt the hungry essence of the aforementioned food that he read about just now. Wafting out of the small hole of the shop, the boy could make out the different ingredients being used, the type he could imagine being used, to make this deliciously aromatic food.

He kept looking and his flat stomach which had been deprived of any semblance of flesh growled in defiance. It wanted that food.

It needed that food.

Having eaten only left-over's and the junk of the dustbins and trash bins around, his stomach craved for this heaven-sent delicacy that he was having a whiff of.

His mind protested to have a go at this deliciously delightful food that was made.

But try as he might, and protest as much his body did, he could not eat it.

Eyes dropping low and gazing at the bare feet touching the cold autumn streets, the boy decided to turn and walk off into the night to find a shelter of sorts for tonight. This place was new.

He had wandered off far from his home place of sorts and had wandered into this big city backwater place where he knew people like himself belonged. His five-year-old mind actually made it out very quickly.

And thus he started to walk when he heard a voice.

"Ichiraku Ramen. How may I serve you?"

The voice actually made him falter in his stepping and he turned, just a bit, towards the person who had called out. Blue eyes made brown eyes filled with such warmth and comfort; the boy thought he would just bask in it for all the years to come and still never be deprived of it.

But alas! He couldn't keep his gaze and solemnly turned around and started walking into the night but the voice called out again, "Hey kid! You want some ramen?"

The boy turned with shocked eyes towards the man that the voice belonged to. His eyes as wide as they could get, he quietly asked, "H-h-how m-mu…"

But he was cut–off by the man., who now that he looked at him, was quite old but not too old to be calling death at his doorstep. He was sort of like the young, energetic grandfather you'd imagine having in your family. Always the center of attention and always cheerful. The old man said,

"You know, you look quite cold. Come on in."

The boy's face couldn't have gotten any more shocking expression than now.

This old man, who didn't even know him, was offering him to come inside. To come inside his stall. What if it was a trap?! What if the man was only pretending to be this humble just to sell him out in the end? Was he this despicable? Or was he a pedophile who lures in young boys like him with those features just to have their way with them? Thoughts more heinous than the previous ones started pouring into his mind.

The old man noticed this. He saw the boy gain a fearful visage on the outside as soon as he offered to come inside. He wasn't sure as to what were the boy's thoughts but catching a glimpse of that fearful expression on his face gave him a bit of an understanding as to what the boy might actually be thinking.

His face scrunched up. 'What could've happened to him for him to grow this wary?' were his thoughts.

"I won't hurt you." Said the old man.

The boy blinked. Still wary of the offer.

"I promise I won't hurt you. Just come on in. You'll catch a cold if you stay out there this late."

Urging the boy to come in, the old man forwarded his left hand. The boy looked at the hand in uncertainty but slowly took it in his own tiny little frail hands, skinny fingers gripping the man's hands as tightly as they could. The old man smiled and led him inside the stall.

The boy let go of his hands and slowly looked around the room. It was…

Warm.

The feeling of the heat penetrating his once-cold body felt good. The welcome feeling of warm air around the room felt very nice on his skin. His face lit up for a moment, and he had the faintest of smiles on his innocent face. His eyes started to brim with tears and the old man smiled.

He knelt down in front of the boy and said, "I am Ichiraku Teuchi. The owner of this shop. What is your name little one?"

In his moment of happiness, the boy could only sniffle in embarrassment and say, "My name is Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto. Dattebayo." The last part whispered into the surrounding.

"A very powerful name little one."

And that was just the start of a bond that was forged to withstand several perils in the future.

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"One Miso Ramen with Pork Fillets please!" came an order.

"One Miso Ramen with Pork Fillets. Naruto-kun, order!" said a girly voice from the front of the stall. A small girl 8 years old with brown hair took the order and went inside the stall. This was Ichiraku Ayame, granddaughter of Teuchi. Her father died in a car accident and her mother left her to fend for herself. It was not long before Teuchi found her and brought her to his shop and fed her back to health.

It had been two years since then and she was good friends with Naruto.

Speaking of Naruto, it was three years since the incident happened and he was never more happy than ever right now. Since then, Uzumaki Naruto started to learn how to cook from Teuchi after he adopted him as a pseudo grandson as he was not legally adopted.

It seemed Naruto had an unnatural affinity for cooking. He picked up skills like sponge to water. It was uncanny at the rate he grew and he already knew how to cook most of the ramen specialities of Teuchi. Teuchi was never prouder. He had gained a helping hand of sorts with Naruto around and the amount of customers seemed to grow day by day.

Business was booming for sure.

"Ayame-chan! Here! The order." Spoke Naruto as he topped the ramen dish with a small herb on the middle and garnished it with black pepper. Ayame went and picked it up and put it down before the eagerly waitng customer.

"Here is your order. Enjoy your lunch!"

"Itadakimasu!" was all the person said before digging into the food with greed.

"Wow, Naru-kun. That was fast!"

"You never underestimate the grit of the Uzumaki! Buahahahahaha!" was the reply.

Ayame giggled as Naruto was hit over the head by an irate Teuchi. Naruto slipped his tongue out and slowly massaged the bump on his head. Teuchi sighed.

"You and your boasts. *sigh* What will I do Naruto?"

"Well, making me the new boss of this stall might curb some of my eccentricities. Dattebayo! Buahahahahah!" and he was punched on his head again.

"Itai~"

Teuchi sighed and shoved a bag into Naruto's face with a chit attached to it. Teuchi looked at him and said, "Go do some shopping. Now!"

Naruto took the bag and the list, saluted and ran out the door. Teuchi could only shake his head in annoyance, or was it peace?

"Naru-kun is really something huh, jii-chan."

"He sure is Ayame-chan. I forgot about how he was just a helpless looking boy that night, whose eyes had the visage of despair so alien for kids his age. And now. Even though he smiles, I know that he still carries some kind of guilt. A kind of sorrow that he hasn't told me since and will never I guess. But I'm happy for him Ayame-chan. He doesn't despair much now. And that is a good thing."

And with that he hugged Ayame and she hugged him back.

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'I would never be loved.'

This words echoed in the mind of Naruto once. The day that he was kicked out of the orphanage because in their opinion there was not enough spaces and food ration for the kids. Many kids had been adopted and left but he was never anyone's choice. Living for over four years with no adoption papers coming his way he was left to rot in the cold autumn night.

Naruto knew it was all just an excuse. The orphanage caretaker was a cheap whore. This only he knew. He saw it with his own two eyes. How she even got the job of a caretaker was very surprising. The food left for the kids she would feed them to her partners for the night. She was a disgraceful woman who didn't deserve to live.

But what could a frail boy like him do?

So he was left in the streets and so he wandered. He read once that miracles happened for those that were in dire need and his miracle, his salvation, came in the form of the old man who looks after him now.

Ichiraku Teuchi.

Such a benevolent man he had never seen. The old man fed him and nursed him back to health. It was more than enough but he insisted that I stay with him and so I stayed. I learned to cook for myself from him. Observing his movements.

It felt natural for some reasons. Cooking came like second nature to him. It was delightful. Naturally, Teuchi, seeing that, started teaching him better. The techniques to use knife and other instruments. It was fun.

It was not too late before he found a friendship in the form of the old man's own granddaughter, Ayame, whom he brought home. It was sad to hear her story and so he and Ayame forged a bond so strong.

Thinking back to the two-three years he had spent with them, Naruto was never happier than now. He let a small smile carve into his face and walked down the streets back towards the stall.

As he turned the corner, he could see smoke in a distance and a small fire bursting out. Fearing the worst he sprinted and before his own eyes, he saw the stall of his pseudo-grandfather burn in inferno. People were running away from the fire. Seeing two figures outside, he sighed, relived that they were Ayame and Teuchi.

He increased his pace and stopped before them screaming.

"Jii-san! Ayame!"

Hearing his voice Ayame turned to him and her eyes widened before she dived into him crying.

"Naru-kun!"

Naruto dropped the bag of vegetables and essentials he was holding and hugged her back.

"I'm glad you're safe Ayame. Jii-san…"

Teuchi turned to him and nodded.

"….what happened Jii-san? Tell me."

The eyes of Teuchi dropped a little and said, "It was them again Naruto. And this time, it seems that they succeeded."

Naruto's eyes widened and then he growled. "Those bastards!"

He let go of Ayame. "I will make them pay!"

"No! Naruto don't."

"But Jii-san!.." Naruto protested. "They, they burned down your shop. Our shop. This was our home."

Teuchi smiled and looked at Naruto and said, "It's fine Naruto. I have the money we earned safely put in a bank account. We will build a new home far from here."

Naruto though had tears in his eyes. "But Jii-san. This place. Won't you miss it? It has so many memories."

Teuchi walked up to him and hugged him. "You guys." He hugged Ayame too. "You guys are all the family I need even if we have no home. You young ones are all the home I have."

"Home is where the heart is right Jii-chan." Said Ayame.

"Yes Ayame-chan. And my heart is with you two."

Naruto smiled and said, "Ok, let's go find ourselves a new home!"

But before he could walk, Teuchi put his hand on the shoulder of Naruto and sighed. And Naruto had a bad feeling about this.

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Trudging through the forest was one Uzumaki Naruto. A backpack on tow, he walked the forest floors wadding through to reach the city that was on the other side. It was shortcut of sorts that he discovered once he was wandering about.

He remembered his old man's words.

'Naruto, now is the time that you expand your horizon. Instead of going with us why don't you go to the city. Go there and learn new cooking skills and recipes. I have seen your passion to cook Naruto and it has never made me happier to know that you like cooking as if it was something akin to breathing. In the city you will learn more than what I have taught you. Go there and learn Naruto. Let me and Ayame care about the house. You must go and learn more."

Of course naturally he protested but with Ayame making that face and his old man actually having a point, it was Naruto's defeat and so he packed himself a bag and headed out.

'Go and be something more Naruto!'

Was what Ayame had said before they split ways and Naruto couldn't help but smile at that.

"I will Ayame-chan. I will." He whispered and picked up his pace but then he suddenly stopped.

His ears picked up a sound of wailing and so he dashed into the trees to his right. Going through the bushes he appeared in a marsh where he saw a fox kit tangled in a vine with a bullet wound in his left hind.

Acting quickly, Naruto jumped into the marsh and wadded towards him. The kit was in immense pain and when it saw someone approach, it started to wiggle even more thinking him to be the hunter.

Naruto reached the kit and the kit tried to bite him but Naruto tried to reason with it saying, "*shhh* I'm here to free you. So hold still."

Surprisingly, it seems the kit had a semblance of intelligence as it quiet down and let Naruto do the work of untangling it.

"You're a guy huh." Naruto wondered and it seemed like the kit took a hit to that and snarled at him. Naruto put both of his hands up in surrender and then finished untangling him. Just then they heard the sound of footsteps that were running. Naruto and the kit knew who it was so Naruto quickly picked up the kit and hid under the massive root of a nearby tree. Both of them silent.

"Where was it?" came a gruff voice.

"I know I shot that son of a bitch!" came another voice.

"Damn it, let's go that way. Shouldn't have run that far if it was wounded." And the footsteps echoed away.

Both of the occupants of the root had a huge sigh of relief. Appearing outside the root, Naruto out the kit down and took out a bandage from his backpack. He crushed a bit of jungle creeper leaf in his hands and applied it first on the wound then wrapped the bandage around it.

"There you go! All done."

The kit yipped happily and nuzzled itself into the hands of Naruto. "Boy you sure have gotten friendly. Come to think of it, if I left you in the wild, those hunters might get you. So what you say, you wanna go with me?"

The kit yipped again happily and climbed upon his shoulders wrapping around his neckline like a muffler. Seeing this Naruto's eyes sparkled, "Hey! That's a pretty good trick!"

With that done, "All right let's get moving. And yeah before that, I'm gonna name you Kurama. How's that for your name?"

The kit yipped. "Seems like you like it." He wore his backpack again and started to walk to the city.

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Naruto didn't know what the big deal was but apparently calling a guy out on his sexuality was a prohibited thing in the city. That was weird; he did it every time against the pompous hardasses back in his district downtown.

But it seemed rules change in the city and that was the reason why he was being held at knife point by a man with long dark hair swept backwards with a couple of bangs hanging over his face down to the chin.

It all happened when he was standing at the bus stop and the man wouldn't ever stop looking at him ever the moment he had his eyes laid over him.

Fed up, he called him out to be a homosexual paedophile in front of dozens of people and the reason why he was held at knife point.

And the threat.

"I challenge you to a cooking match to take back my dignity and respect!"

It was a surprising request as he didn't know how to even respond to that. Moreover, he didn't know how to even accept it and from the looks of it he was confident upon whatever he suggested and the people around him didn't even seem to mind the odd request.

Well, whatever the reason may be, he was just challenged to a cooking match. He didn't know anything like a cooking match and that something like that even existed. But he was not about to back down from someone whom he could clearly see was a person who cooked too.

This was actually exciting.

The duel was said to be held in this special-of-the-day shop called Restaurant Yukihira which he apparently owned. He also got the name of his challenger.

Yukihira Jōichirō.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto. Dattebayo."

As Naruto unpacked, he saw many, what seemed to be, customers lining in. With his tools ready he turned to ask his challenger what was the challenge but before he could he was blasted with a shriek that announced,

"Ladies and Gentlemen, today, Yukihira Jōichirō-san is challenging someone for his dignity and pride to be redemption' ed."

Cheers followed. This actually startled his fox kit Kurama and he unwound him and put him inside his bag.

"Stay there until I say so." Naruto whispered to him and closed the zipper a little.

"So let's get this cooking challenge on the way!"

And the cheers grew louder. Naruto didn't know what was happening. So many people cheering on for just a small challenge as this. What was it?

On the other side, Jōichirō stood and leaned back in the wall thinking, 'You look so much like him when he was younger. Those faint whisker-like marks. Why do you resemble him so much? I need to know…' and he stood up and blinked slowly. '…and to confirm it, this challenge is the only way.'

"Tou-san!" came a voice.

"Hey! Souma-kun! You're back from school.!"

Yeah, I heard, you were having challenge. Where's the challenger?"

Jōichirō pointed towards Naruto. The boy's eyes widened and Naruto expected some pompous speech of how his father will beat him but surprise!

"Woah! You're the same age as me! And you're being challenged by Tou-san! Awesome!"

Naruto blinked not once, not twice, not thrice. He could never stop blinking. The hell?

Jōichirō laughed at the reaction of Naruto and then slowly led his son into the opposite side of the bar table. He then looked towards Naruto.

He nodded.

Naruto looked back towards his challenger and nodded back. Jōichirō spoke, "Any dish you can make. Time is one hour."

"Ok then."

And so the duel began. He could see Jōichirō start cutting some vegetable, spring onions from the looks of it and so he also stared. But then he realised he had no ingredients. As if knowing what he was thinking, Jōichirō spoke up, "Take from the kitchen anything you want."

"Arigatou."

And Naruto brought noodles from the kitchen.

He first started boiling the noodles in the water adding a pinch of salt. Next he took up garlic cloves and started skewering them with a pair of knives which shocked most of the patrons at his odd skill.

He then started to fluidly chop up onion, beans and some amount of parsley too into fine bits and kept them separated. Waiting for his noodles to boil, he then started to stir fry bits and pieces rectangular shaped pieces of meat, post-boiled, with sesame oil, pepper and salt to taste. He even added a green paste of chilli upon it.

He then kept on stirring the meat until it turned into reddish brown. Looking that his noodles were already done, he separated the noodles from its broth. Then slowly mixing the residue sesame oil with the spices still there with the broth he then put the whole broth over the noodles. It was weird way to cook ramen if any and the crowd knew it.

Then Naruto put all the meat pieces one by one in a circular manner to make it resemble a flower and then he sprinkled the finely chopped onions, beans and parsley all over it. Splashing a yolk onto a side and then garnishing it with a mint leaf on the center and pepper all over, the dish was ready in at most 49 minutes.

A few minutes later, Jōichirō appeared with his own dish. A roasted beef jerky seasoned with mint chutney.

Naruto had no illusions that even though that dish looked simple it might as well pack a huge punch. He remembered his old man tell him.

'Even the fanciest of dishes can be found insufficient.'

Teuchi was a man of wisdom and Naruto was honored to have met him. The moment of judging arrived and it all fell to the little girl who volunteered to taste both their food.

She first tasted Naruto's food. At first she had no reaction but then she started smiling with tears in her eyes for no apparent reason. But she endured and moved on to Jōichirō's dish. Eating that dish made her come alive after the depressive but elusive downtone of Naruto's dish.

And soon all of the patrons present in the restaurant stared to have a bite of the food. Everyone were impressed from their looks and so it was up to them now as to who won the match. There was tense moment and it was broken by,

"Jōichirō's dish wins!"

The crowd unanimously voted for Jōichirō and he was declared the winner. Naruto looked on and couldn't help but smile at the childish way the guy was celebrating his win. He went to the left over portion of Jōichirō's dish and tasted it. It felt refreshing.

The beef melted into your mouth and with the chutney balancing out the flavors of the spicy meat gave a sense of rejuvenation. Naruto nodded and smiled.

This dish was a winner.

'This man would surely be a great teacher. Jii-san, I think I know now what you meant.' Thought Naruto as he watched the guy be congratulated by his son. Naruto couldn't help but be jealous at that scene.

Moments later,

"Oi kid, it seems you're new in town. Wanna come work in my restaurant? You can stay if you want. Just help me around." Said Jōichirō.

Naruto's eyes widened, "I can stay?"

"Well yeah, and you seem to be of Souma's age so he will get a new friend. Or a brother. Not to mention your cooking is pretty top notch. Say kid, you learnt somewhere?"

"I learnt it from my old man. His name is Teuchi."

Jōichirō nodded. He then asked, "Where are your parents?"

"I'm an orphan." Replied Naruto solemnly.

"Oh. I'm sorry kid." Jōichirō felt like kicking himself.

"No, no. you didn't know. It's ok."

"Kid, tell me. What drives your cooking?"

"Huh?"

"I mean, what do you feel when you cook. Do you have a dream?"

"A dream?" Naruto whispered. "My only dream is to cook for people in such a way that they may smile. Even in dark times, I want them to feel positive about themselves. I want them to forget about bad times and focus on the good times. That is what I want to do with my cooking. I want to see everyone smile and be happy."

"Kid, that's a beautiful dream."

And Naruto smiled. Smiled a pure smile after a longtime.

'A food isn't worth its taste if it can't bring even a simple smile on the face of someone. Make food in such a way that when someone eats it, it shall make them feel good even in the darkest times.'

'Teuchi Jii-san, I remember your words. I shall strive to make people happy. And I think I found the one to guide me.' Naruto thought to himself and grinned as he entered the Restaurant of Yukihira.

It was good day after all.

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