Caged Birds Lullaby

chapter 8

Ichiraku Teuchi knew he was old, and not in the best health, but he knew one thing, his eyes weren't betraying him now. Ayame wasn't at the ramen stand today, she had a few things to do. But Teuchi knew when he told her what exactly was going on, she would certainly scream at the closest wall, even hit it, wishing to be here as well.

Well, this was interesting to say the least. His eyes quirked upwards in a smile as he watched the pair, one slurping her ramen noisily and the other eating with reserved dignity and pride, trying not to pay attention to the eating habits of his companion.

"-..was to deliver a scroll to the Land of Wood."

"Eh? Where is that?"

Teuchi watched the boy, a Hyuuga, judging from his eyes, sigh. The blonde girl surely asked a lot of questions. He chuckled, going back t cleaning the already clean pan. He would never admit it, but he was curious. Plus Naruto always shared her stories with him and Ayame, so he had developed a rather bad habit of listening to conversations, especially if the young blonde was involved in some way.

"A few hundred miles to the north of Konoha. It's a very small country. On our way we encountered a group of thugs. They weren't shinobi, but they still wanted the scroll."

"So you guys kicked some ass, right? Wasn't Lee great in taijutsu? And the girl, Tenten, you know the one that likes yo-.."

Teuchi surpassed a chuckle as the boy nearly dropped the noodles from his chopsticks.

"She does not," the boy coughed," don't you want to listen to the story? If you continue with the unnecessary interruptions, I will not continue it."

The old man turned just in time to see the blonde jinchuuriki pout and stuff her face with noodles. Somehow she had muttered a 'fine, you bastard' through her mouthful.

She was so much like her mother.

"As you put it, we did 'kick some ass'. The scroll was for someone named Fuu. She was a weird girl. Before we left, however, we were ambushed. It seemed that those thugs wanted some revenge. They were samurai, and since none of us, except Tenten and Gai sensei knew how deadly a katana could be.."

The boy trailed away. Teuchi watched Naruto's eyes bulge out in worry, her ramen forgotten.

"What happened?"

"Well", the Hyuuga paused for effect. This pissed Naruto off.

Teuchi was quite enjoying himself just by watching those two. Oh, Ayame didn't know what she was missing!

"We fought. Lee got hurt though, his arm was slashed. We killed them."

The Ichiraku owner, even though being a civilian, interacted with shinobi on daily basis, and he knew what the first kill meant. He saw Naruto give him a short hug.

"Killing is part of a shinobi. My father and uncle both taught me that, later we were told in the academy, but I still couldn't imagine it, before now. This guilt will never go away."

"The fact that you are feeling guilt, proves that you are not a killing monster, Neji. Plus…well, think of it this way, you didn't kill innocent people, right? They deserved it. In our world, isn't it better to die, then live knowing how much of a foul person you are..wait..what am I saying.."

Teuch saw the boy give a small smile to the girl, who was currently hitting herself for being careless and tactless.

"Are you done? Lets go."

The boy, Neji, proceeded to drag Naruto out of the stand.

"Noo, my ramen, ttebayo! Lemme go Neji-baka!"