Hoping to silence the endless rumbling in his stomach, Naruto slowly parted the familiar, small cloth curtain of Ichiraku Ramen. The moment she saw him, a genuine, warm smile appeared on Ayame's face.
"Naruto! Welcome!"
Hearing his daughter's voice, Teuchi set aside the strainer in his hand, turned toward Naruto, and called out with his famous, fatherly smile:
"Welcome, Naruto! How are you doing, little man?"
Faced with this sudden affection after all the psychological pressure he had endured on the street, Naruto smiled, a bit nervously and a bit shyly.
"Big sister Ayame... Uncle Teuchi... I'm fine, thank you... I want to eat ramen... I have my money with me too."
As the little boy tightly clutched a few crumpled coins in his pocket, the other customers sitting lined up at the counter turned toward him. The contempt, disgust, and hatred in their eyes instantly made the air heavy. A few of them grimaced and pushed back their chairs to leave without saying a word. However, one of them, a middle-aged, grumpy-looking man, looked directly at Teuchi before leaving and spoke in a loud, repulsive tone:
"Teuchi! Why are you letting this plague-bearer into your shop? If you keep letting this demon in here, I and the others will never set foot in here again! You're driving your customers away!"
Naruto and Ayame flinched simultaneously at this harsh insult. Naruto's shoulders instantly slumped; heartbroken, he looked down at the ground in shame. Ayame, on the other hand, looked at her father with worry and grew anxious. However, Teuchi slammed the cloth in his hand hard onto the counter and looked toward the man, speaking in an extremely harsh voice with no trace of his fatherly demeanor left:
"Not my problem! I wouldn't want a customer devoid of humanity like you anyway! Get the hell out of my shop right now!"
The man was startled by what he heard; not expecting such a reaction, his ego instantly turned into pure rage.
"YOU! Who are you talking to!"
Without backing down, Teuchi locked his eyes onto the man's and repeated, enunciating every syllable:
"FUCK. OFF."
The man turned beet red with anger. He had never expected a simple ramen chef in a backstreet to be this audacious. The other shopkeepers and pedestrians around them had already stopped, looking at them and starting to whisper. Feeling humiliated in front of the crowd, the man couldn't swallow his pride; he clenched his fist and lunged forward to attack Teuchi. Right at that moment, an iron-hard hand reaching out from behind him landed heavily on the man's shoulder. The owner of the hand spoke in that military tone that was quite calm but sent shivers down one's spine:
"Is there a problem here?"
The angry man spun around furiously to shake off the hand on his shoulder with a rough motion, preparing to yell and curse at the person who stopped him. However, the moment he saw the dark blue, high-collared uniform and the red-and-white fan crest on the man behind him, the words caught in his throat. The man practically choked on his own spit:
"N-n-n-no o-o-o-officer! T-t-there's n-n-no p-p-problem at all! Absolutely none!"
The newcomer was a ranking member of the Konoha Military Police Force, meaning the Uchiha Garrison. His mere silent presence there was enough to instantly tense up all the surrounding civilians and shopkeepers. The Uchiha clan was the one institution in the village that nobody, absolutely nobody, wanted to provoke or cross. Because everyone knew very well that if you committed a crime against an Uchiha, even the Hokage couldn't easily save you from their harsh judgment. The whispering crowd around them suddenly scattered; everyone bowed their heads and walked away quickly on their own paths. The Uchiha officer, Tatsumi, ignored the man's squirming and looked straight at Teuchi:
"Is there really no problem, Teuchi-san?"
The aggressive man looked at Teuchi with fear, teary and pleading eyes, as if saying, "Please don't say anything." But Teuchi did not compromise and spoke with determination:
"You arrived just in time, Tatsumi-san. This man came into my shop, heavily insulted both my other customers and me, and threatened me with my business! Moreover, he was just preparing to physically attack me! Please do what is necessary as an officer!"
The man was left in shock. With his legs trembling in fear, he desperately reached his hands out toward Teuchi and rapidly began to beg:
"Teuchi! Teuchi, please! I am truly sorry! It happened in a moment of anger, unintentionally, please forgive me! For the sake of my family's livelihood, spare me!"
The man wanted to continue crying and apologizing, but Tatsumi stopped him by twisting the man's arm behind his back with a cold and professional move. Looking at the other two Uchiha police officers waiting behind him, he simply gave a brief nod of approval:
"Take him away. When he stays as a guest in the holding cells of the precinct for a few days, he'll learn thoroughly that he shouldn't disrupt public order and attack shopkeepers on the streets of Konoha."
As the two Uchihas grabbed the man by the arms and quickly handcuffed him, the man struggled and continued to scream:
"I AM REALLY SORRY! I WAS VERY WRONG! TEUCHI I SWEAR I'LL PAY YOU, I'LL GIVE YOU AS MUCH AS YOU WANT! PLEASE FORGIVE ME AND WITHDRAW YOUR COMPLAINT! PLEASE UCHIHA-SAMA, DON'T DO IT!"
The man's exaggerated fear might have seemed bizarre from the outside, but the horrifying stories circulating in the village about the Uchiha holding cells left him literally terrified. He feared he would be beaten in dark cells, lose his mind by being subjected to endless genjutsus, or be permanently crippled. In reality, most of these dark rumors were vastly exaggerated; they were nothing more than highly insidious and strategic black propaganda fabricated over the years by Danzo himself to alienate the villagers from the Uchiha. Through this, Danzo aimed to ensure that when the Uchiha clan was eventually destroyed, the village populace wouldn't mourn, but rather rejoice, saying, "We're rid of those tyrants." However, in the current political climate, especially due to the clan being unjustly ostracized since the Nine-Tails Rebellion, the Uchihas were emotionally extremely tense and intolerant. If you acted defiantly or insulted them inside, those rumors could very well become reality in an instant.
Teuchi, on the other hand, didn't turn to look at the begging man being dragged away screaming for even a second. Wiping the harsh expression from his eyes, he turned to Naruto, who stood frozen in shock, and put that old, warm smile back on his face:
"Come on Naruto, take a seat! Tell me what you want to eat, and I'll prepare it right away."
Startled, Naruto came to his senses and looked at Teuchi with great shame and embarrassment. He bowed his head, feeling terrible.
"I-I'm sorry, Uncle Teuchi... Your customer left because of me, I caused trouble for you and big sister Ayame. It's best if I leave right away."
Naruto was just about to turn around and run away. Teuchi protecting and defending him from that man had warmed his heart, but he didn't want to cause any more harm or put these two beautiful people in a difficult situation because of his own curse. However, before he could even take a step, Ayame reached out and grabbed Naruto tightly by the collar, just like holding a grumpy kitten by the scruff of its neck. In an angry yet equally affectionate manner, she pulled Naruto back and sat him on the stool in front of the counter.
"Why are you apologizing, you silly boy! That man insulted you and us, you're not the guilty one, he is! My dad is absolutely right, we have no need for people like him to be our customers anyway!"
Teuchi nodded, agreeing with his daughter. He looked at Naruto with a smile and came up with a brilliant excuse to lift the burden of guilt off the boy's shoulders:
"Ayame is completely right, Naruto! Actually, you saved me from a very bad, problematic customer, so I should be thanking you! Now, in honor of your good deed, I am going to treat you to an extra-large Ramen with plenty of pork as a reward!"
Being only three years old, Naruto widened his eyes in astonishment at this logic. Pointing to his own chest with his pinky finger, he asked innocently:
"Really? You mean I actually helped you!?"
Without any hesitation, Teuchi nodded up and down, putting on an extremely serious facial expression to comfort the boy and make him believe this white lie:
"Absolutely! I don't serve such rude customers who have no respect for shopkeepers in my shop! Thanks to you, I managed to identify this two-faced, problematic man before he could harm me! Otherwise, he would have kept coming sneakily and deceiving me."
Innocent Naruto, who couldn't yet understand the subtle social dynamics of the situation, smiled broadly and genuinely, truly believing he had done a very good and useful deed. At that moment, Teuchi turned to look at Tatsumi, who had finished his duty, and the other two remaining Uchiha police officers. Tatsumi had completed the arrest and handover procedures but didn't take a step toward Teuchi. It wasn't just because of Naruto; he had sensed the heavy and concealed chakras of the Anbu members watching the boy from the rooftops. He didn't want to create political friction or be misunderstood between the Anbu and the Uchiha for no reason. Bowing his head slightly from a distance, he called out:
"We will continue our patrol, Teuchi-san. Good business to you."
Teuchi smiled warmly, full of gratitude:
"Come, let me make you a quick Ramen on the go! Please, it's my treat. After all, you get very tired maintaining the order of the village."
Tatsumi chuckled politely. He needed to keep from neglecting his patrol duty, and approaching the blond boy was risky for his clan under the current orders. However, Teuchi's offer had genuinely made him happy. Despite all the political tensions and slander, Teuchi was one of the rare, honest shopkeepers in the village who genuinely treated members of the Uchiha clan well, didn't ostracize them, and respected them. For this reason, the Uchihas—whether from the pro-peace 'Doves' faction or the hardliner 'Hawks' faction—truly liked and respected Teuchi, and would never allow a commotion to occur in his shop. This was exactly why Tatsumi had noticed the disturbance in front of Ichiraku during his patrol, come over immediately, and directly acted upon Teuchi's complaint.
"Thank you for your kind offer, but maybe later, Teuchi-san. Right now we need to continue our patrol, we're on duty."
The other two Uchiha police officers also smiled and bowed respectfully:
"Don't forget that promise though, Teuchi-san! I'll come to you later with my girlfriend as a civilian, I'll want a large size!"
"I second that! On my day off, I'll come with my wife and kids, and we'll eat the specially made ramen! You better be prepared!"
Teuchi let out a hearty and booming laugh:
"Hahaha! Don't worry, boys! I always keep my promises! I will eagerly await you at my shop!"
As the Uchihas walked away with their disciplined steps, the Anbu team, who had been watching this whole event from the rooftops and were on the verge of a heart attack over a political crisis because the Uchiha and the Jinchuriki almost made contact, finally breathed a deep sigh of relief. Looking down at the shop from under his mask, the leader of the Anbu team thought in bewilderment:
'How is it that while Hokage-sama and the supposedly wise elderly counselors with all their authority can never seem to get along with the Uchiha clan, an ordinary Ramen chef can establish such an intimate and respectful relationship with them over a single bowl of food!?'
Meanwhile, as these calm and emotional events were unfolding in the real world, a silent but terrifying storm was brewing inside the seal space within Naruto's mind. Altay had observed the situation from the inside from beginning to end with extreme silence and composure, then turned to the giant fox beside him:
"Did you perfectly memorize the man's description, face, and tone of voice?"
Taking serious notes with the giant pen in his hand on a massive piece of paper lying on the enormous table in front of him, Kurama nodded in confirmation:
"Yes! I etched that scumbag's face into my mind second by second! I also wrote down his appearance in detail."
Altay nodded slowly. His voice was low and calm, yet so excessively terrifying that it would make one's blood run cold. His eyes were narrowed like a ruthless steppe wolf that had cornered its prey in a moment of weakness:
"Then write this below that note: 'Civilian from Konoha. Called Naruto, who is under my protection, a "Plague" and tried to kick him out of the ramen shop where he was eating, attempting to humiliate him in public.' Punishment: Left or right, it doesn't matter, at least one leg bone will be broken cleanly. Such a rude man needs to sit at home in pain for at least a few months, reflecting on his mistake, and questioning his life during that free time. Furthermore... The very first chance I get, I will personally break his jaw as well. He shouldn't be able to speak and should feed on liquids for a while, so he thoroughly learns how not to insult a lone orphan in public. Lastly, for the sake of social discipline, I have sentenced him to 12 full strikes of falaka! It will be applied at full force, without mercy. Let this be a lesson for threatening a shopkeeper and inciting the public against a little child. Do you think this penalty list is sufficient for him?"
Kurama shuddered slightly at Altay's ice-cold, calculated, and terrifying sense of justice. For some reason, faced with the man's ruthlessness, he felt a brief moment of pity for the poor civilian. But then his vindictive fox nature took over and he didn't care; after all, in his eyes, the best Konoha citizen was a dead or crippled Konoha citizen. Kurama was secretly impressed that Altay personally asked for his opinion on this execution plan and saw him as an authority of decision. Stroking his chin with his giant claw, he thought for a bit, then spoke with a demonic grin:
"I think these physical punishments are too light for that scumbag! Remember, mortal, this is not your world; there is medical ninjutsu here! Even if you break the man's bones, he will get back on his feet very quickly at the hospital and forget the pain fast!"
Altay paused, startled by the realization that he had forgotten this important detail. Taking Kurama's clever warning into account, he thought seriously and nodded:
"You are absolutely right... Then add an extra note to the penalty list: 'Following the physical punishment, the man will directly meet you, namely Kurama, mentally!' Since he acts so bold and reckless as to run his mouth at the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, let's see what he does with that big mouth of his when he faces true darkness."
Kurama literally loved this new addition. The fact that the matter went beyond just Altay's revenge and that he himself was personally included in this entertainment thrilled him immensely:
"Hahah! A brilliant idea! Let's see how that pathetic civilian pisses himself out of fear when I show him a billionth of my power and darkness in my mind! ZEHAHAHAHA!"
Filled with a happy and sadistic joy, Kurama carefully wrote what Altay said on the massive paper, then gave the signal by raising his thumb:
"It's done, mortal! The man is now on our blacklist! I am now connecting you back to Naruto's mind, to the outside world."
Just before the connection was established, another strategic detail came to Altay's mind, and he hastily stopped Kurama:
"Wait! Kurama, take one more note on a separate, clean piece of paper: 'Investments will be made in Ichiraku Ramen's owner, Teuchi, and his shop. They will be protected.'"
Understanding the logic of this order, Kurama nodded without any objection and took that note as well:
"Done. Written. I've opened the mental connection."
Altay cleared his throat, burying his furious commander persona deep within his mind and extinguishing his anger completely. Looking at the situation in the outside world through Naruto's eyes, from his innocent perspective, he spoke in an extremely calm, big-brotherly tone:
"Kid, I watched what happened. You should be truly grateful to your Uncle Teuchi. He defended you from that man and the crowd there without a second thought."
Meanwhile, eagerly slurping his ramen, Naruto stopped eating in astonishment. He asked in his mind:
'What do you mean, Nii-san? He treated me to ramen because I saved him from the bad man anyway, right?'
Taking an affectionate sigh, Altay dripped a drop of reality into the boy's pure world:
"Oh, kid... He told you a very beautiful lie so you wouldn't be sad and wouldn't feel like an unwanted person in the shop. He risked arguing with that rude customer solely to protect you, so you could eat your meal in peace at the shop. But to prevent you from feeling guilty, he made up this sweet white lie. Never forget this; in the future, when you have the money and the opportunity, you must never forget this kindness and give your heartfelt thanks to Uncle Teuchi by buying him a nice gift."
Naruto was stunned by the truth he heard and looked at the broad-shouldered Teuchi, who was continuing to cook ramen with the chopsticks in his hand. Feeling the boy's intense and emotional gaze, Teuchi turned toward him, wiped the sweat off with his cloth, and tilted his head in curiosity:
"Is there a problem, Naruto? Did I put too little meat?"
To hide the warm tears welling up in his eyes, Naruto quickly shook his head side to side and buried his face in his bowl, swiftly going back to slurping the ramen:
"NO! NO! THERE'S NO PROBLEM AT ALL! THE RAMEN IS SO GOOD, IT'S THE BEST FOOD IN THE WORLD! YOU ARE THE BEST, UNCLE TEUCHI!"
As Naruto quickly ate the hot ramen in his bowl, a few teardrops rolling from his eyes secretly mixed into the broth. For the first time in his life, an adult had made a sacrifice for him and hidden it from him without expecting anything in return, just so he wouldn't be sad. Teuchi, oblivious to the boy's emotional moment, was just happy to see him eating with appetite; he turned around, prepared another large, steaming bowl for Naruto, and placed it in front of him. Naruto was so full that he wanted to politely decline, but Altay immediately intervened in his mind:
"Eat it, kid, do not turn him down. In our culture, rejecting a sincere kindness and effort made for you is considered disrespectful. An offering is never turned down. If you really want to thank him, you will do as I say; drink the bowl to the last drop, and in the future, buy him a nice gift."
Hesitating for a brief moment, Naruto stopped objecting upon hearing Altay's logical words. With a smile mixed with tears, he pulled the large bowl in front of him and started eating with appetite.
"It's so delicious... Thank you so much, Uncle Teuchi!"
Teuchi crossed his arms over his chest and let out his booming, fatherly laugh:
"Enjoy your meal, my little friend! The most important thing in the world for a chef is such sincere praise for his food and a customer with a good appetite. So, I am the one thanking you!"
Naruto silently, peacefully continued to sip the ramen in his bowl. But something had changed now. Altay explaining the background of the events to him, teaching him the invisible social dynamics, and the affectionate presence in his mind had begun to make very deep and lasting changes within Naruto. He was no longer just a naive child getting pushed around; he was a student whose eyes had been opened, beginning to realize much better the events around him, the true intentions of people, and the great sacrifices hidden behind small gestures...
If you'd like to read the ten chapters in advance, you can find them at p@@tre@@n. The link is in my profile.