Me and Nyx drooled at the steaming bowls of noodle soup that were put before us. My stomach was begging me to tuck in, and I didn’t question it.
“This. Is. Amazing.” Nyx said after taking some mouthfuls.
“mmmmhm” I agreed, sucking up the noodles.
Naruto looked at us with joy, and began tucking into his own bowl.
“I know right? I can’t believe you guys have never had ramen before!” He said.
“Well, back at home all we ever eat is rice and a bit of pork” I said, taking another mouthful.
“EH!? That’s not healthy! You’ve got to eat some other stuff too!”
“It gets in our daily carbs and calories for the day, so its okay. Tastes like crap though, I wish it tasted like this” Nyx said, slurping up her soup.
Naruto looked at us like we were freaks for a second, then shrugged it off and began on his own ramen again
In a matter of minutes, the ramen was gone. Naruto patted his stomach, like a proud old man.
“Ahh, there’s nothing like ramen to meet new friends to, and to eat dinner with” he said and smiled at us. Oddly, I felt a small smile tug at my lips, something they hadn’t done on their own in a long time. I wasn’t sure that I liked it. And as for him calling us friends, I only had one friend and that was Nyx. A dark feeling encroached on my stomach. I didn’t want more friends, more friends meant more danger, and more loss.
The dark feeling began to manifest, until it felt like all of my insides were ripping each other to shreds. I grabbed my stomach, feeling like there was something bad going to happen. I looked over to Nyx, and she looked like she was going through the same thing.
I felt my stomach acid rising, and knew instantly what was happening.
I was going to be sick, because my stomach wasn’t used to anything other than rice and pork. I ran into a small alley right next to the Ramen shop, and let nature take its course.
My knees were shaky, my vision blurred, and I was trembling all over. I hadn’t really been sick that often in my life, and when it happened, it kind of knocked me a bit. I walked back up to the ramen shop and sat back down.
“Uh…hey, you two okay?” Naruto said.
“Yeah, just…I don’t think we can eat this kind of stuff” I said, looking at the bowl and shuddering.
“You can’t” Nyx said. “But I can, I’m going to make myself keep this stuff down, even if it kills me” she said.
“Great! I like you Nyx!” Naruto beamed. “How about we go to the store and get lots of cup ramen, that ramen isn’t as expensive or as rich as this one.”
“Deal.”
I rolled my eyes and followed them. This was bound to end badly.
We settled near the lakefront, them carrying bagfulls of ramen and challenging each other to a ramen eating contest, and me carrying the flasks of hot water for the ramen.
I went down onto the lake, and sat down on the edge of the short pier, letting my shoes just scrape the surface of the water, Naruto and Nyx eating and yelling in the background. I took a deep breath and looked around. Konoha was pretty, with all of its lights and the bustle of people. I wasn’t used to anything like this, i could only remember fragments now about my village, where everything was. It was all a blur, and to be honest I liked to keep it that way. I was faithful to my country, yes, but I didn’t want any memories of there to come back. I had said to myself when all my training started that I never wanted to see my parents or my big brother again. If I did, I would want to be staring at their gravestones.
