Neji's Romance

Making a new friend

Their awkward mood did not lift, even later, and Neji found himself becoming the silent tour guide, which made her nervous. They had tried to engage in small talk a few times, but each time it would fizzle out into long strange silences.

Each time these silences stretched, unbidden thoughts crept into her mind, and much as she tried to shake them off, they would always just appear without warning. More disturbing, were the flashbacks that would shadow a surge of emotion, like shadows that crept into her mind's eye and taunted her, just out of her reach.

After what seemed like an hour of walking, she stopped to admire the delicious smell wafting out of a store front that made something called Ramen. To her surprise a bubbly youth in a bright orange and black jumpsuit came bursting out from under the cloths that covered part of the entrance. The youth looked straight at Neji, who had come to a halt beside her.

"Yo Neji!" he called loudly as he draped his arm around Neji's shoulders. Neji looked seriously disgruntled with this turn of events, as the boy with the yellow hair pulled him closer, turned in her direction and asked him if she was... not ending the sentence with words, but with a finger motion, sticking his pinkie straight up in the air. She frowned as Neji's cheeks lightly coloured pink, she did not understand what the yellow haired boy had meant, but Neji was obviously discomforted and roughly pulled out of the boy's embrace.

"Odd" she thought "obviously that has significant meaning, but I will never know what it means"
Feeling a bit lost and lonely, she turned her back on the boys, and with her stomach growling, headed towards the small ramen store, where she was promptly joined by the boy with the yellow hair.

"Oh hai yo Naruto!" came the greeting from the other side of the counter top that separated the kitchen from the front of the small store.

The counter had two levels, each at a different height, lined up in front were several bar stools, one of which the boy named Naruto plopped himself down on. The greeting had been uttered by an elderly man wearing a paper chef's hat, who seemed to be accompanied by, she guessed, his daughter. It was obvious that Naruto was a regular, but not because of the greeting he had received, but also because he had not said a word about food, when a bowl, of what seemed to be soup, was placed before him.

When the older gentleman looked at her, she had no idea what to do, she did not even know what kind of food this was, having eaten only what had been provided for her by the mansion staff. She opened her mouth, but hesitated, "two ichiraku ramen specials please", she jumped as the deep voice of Neji came from her other side, he had sat down on the stool beside her.

His proximity made her quite uncomfortable, she felt the heat radiating from him, and the clean smell of grass and dirt gently floated over to her, he must have gotten in some morning practice out in the woods before they had gone on their excursion. She smiled softly as she imagined him out in the middle of nowhere, moving in the graceful manner she had seen him use when he was sparring with his uncle, the sweat running down his body.

She started as she realised that in her imagination, Neji was not wearing a shirt, and she became very aware that he had been sitting beside her, looking intently in her direction. She cocked her head to the side, and with her cheeks colouring slightly she asked snappily, "what?", going straight into the defensive.

His face instantly took on a stony look, "all I wanted to know is if you liked spicy food or not", oh face palm, she had not even realised he had been speaking to her. Then a second realisation hit her, what foods did she like? She shook her head, keeping her eye contact unbroken.

"What!?" came the exclamation from next to her, the orange clad boy with the mischievous face lent over, "you don't know?" he glanced at Neji, "then we have to find out! No better place to start than Ichiraku Ramen!" He turned back to the elderly gentleman and yelled "one of each old man!" Neji spluttered, who was going to pay for this? "Oh come on Neji! She HAS to try it, she cannot miss out on the flavour! Besides, how does she not know what she likes?" Neji glanced at her, trying to shoot her a warning look.