Naruto's Nightmare

Naruto left Sakura's room quietly. Tsunade-sama had said that even though Sakura had been asleep for a month she still needed to rest. As Naruto walked down the hallway his stomach growled loudly. Naruto looked down and rubbed his abdomen.

"How about some ramen? I probably still have a few packs left at home." Suddenly Naruto tripped over something and fell flat on his face.

"Watch where your going brat." A horse voice growled. Naruto looked up and saw an old woman leaning against the wall in a hospital gown.

"Don't call me a brat you old hag." Naruto said angrily as he jumped up. The woman snatched Naruto by the collar.

"Who are you calling a hag?" She yelled. Naruto was about to yell back when he felt a terrible charka just behind him.

"Naruto, What are you doing to my patient?" Tsunade's voice barely hid her anger.

"Nothing" Naruto pulled back as the old woman released him.

"Go find something to do with yourself brat. And get out of my hospital." Naruto knew better than to argue. He turned and walked off sullenly.

Well at least I have something to look forward to" Naruto thought as he left the hospital and walked down the path towards his apartment.

When Naruto reached his apartment he had to rummage through his pouch for his keys. He opened the door and strode inside. The first thing he noticed was that everything was clean. Naruto had been surprised the first day he had returned to see Sakura because someone had apparently cleaned his apartment. He learned from Tsunade later that Sakura often went to his apartment to dust. But in the past week Naruto had allowed his apartment to revert back to its more familiar messy state. With Sakura still in the hospital the cleanliness of his surroundings surprised him. A moment later Naruto found a note sitting as his small dinning table. The short note was written in graceful script.

"Naruto-kun, the Hokage told us how much time you've been spending with Sakura-chan, so we came by to clean up a bit for you. If you need anything else just let us know.

Your Friends,

Team (Hinata, Kiba, Shino)

Underneath in barley legible letters was post scrip.

P.S. Hinata did all the work so you owe her Uzumaki. –Kiba

Naruto smiled brightly. It was still hard to believe sometimes that he had so many friends now after being alone for so long. Naruto folded up the letter and put it in his pocket he would defiantly have to think up a way to thank Hinata before he left for training again. Naruto's stomach gave another rumble.

"Ok, I'm going." Naruto turned and entered his kitchen. He pulled out a pair of chopsticks then opened the cupboard where he kept all his instant ramen and gasped. It was empty. Sitting on the empty shelf Naruto found another note.

"It was moldy so we threw it out. - Shino"

Naruto was fuming. "Why?" he bellowed. "Mold isn't …that bad. Last time I was only sick for a day." Naruto pulled out his Gamata and opened its mouth. He sighted with relief. Jiyara hadn't cleaned him out completely last time; he still had enough to restock his beloved ramen. Naruto closed his wallet and left his apartment. A pretty cheap convience store was just around the corner.

"Good evening, how may I assist you?" The clerk asked as Naruto entered the store.

"Just here to pick up a few necessities" Naruto said with a wave. He walked towards the back of the store but found the shelves empty.

"Hey" Naruto walked quickly back to the front of the store. "You're out of instant ramen"

"Sorry sir, we've been out for awhile. The factory we ship it from went out of business."

"Really? That's odd, I wonder why?" Naruto scratched his head and left the small shop. There was a grocery store somewhere on the next block Naruto remembered. He could try there next. But it was the same there as well.

"I'm sorry sir; we don't have any ramen left. I could order some but I don't know when it would arrive."

"No, that's ok…I'll just go…um." Naruto couldn't think of what to do.

"Na...Naruto-kun?" Hinata's quiet voice came from around the corner. She stepped out from around the shelves and smiled. "What's the matter?"

"I can't find any Ramen"

"Oh…sorry but the stuff in your cupboard was just so…"

"Nasty?" As Naruto finished her sentence Hinata began to blush.

"That's not what I was going to say." She said sheepishly.

"It's ok." Naruto said with a smile. Suddenly he remembered the letter. "Um Hinata I was thinking of getting some fresh ramen from Ichiraku. Would you like to come with me?" Hinata blushed crimson and looked shocked for a moment.

"I can't." Something inaudible passed Hinata's lips.

"What?"

"I can't...I mean we can't. Ichiraku closed down a few months after you left. Tsuchi-san said there just wasn't enough business to…" Hinata wasn't able to finish her sentence; Naruto was already out the door and racing down the street.

A few minutes later he was standing in front of a boarded up shack.

"….It can't be." Naruto looked up at the faded banner and wept. He fell to his knees and slammed his fist into the ground. "This isn't real…Noooo!"

"Uzumaki, are you listening to me?" Naruto's head snapped up and he saw Tsunade standing over him. He was back on the floor of the hospital hallway.

"Are you ok brat?" The old woman in the hospital gown asked. I really didn't mean to touch his skin it was just an accident."

"What!?" Everything fell into place. Naruto jumped up and dusted himself off. "I'm fine. No harm done…just…tell me Ichiraku's it still open?" Naruto asked hopefully.

"Yeah, last time I checked." Tsunade answered warily. "Naruto I want to check you over…" but it was too late. Naruto was jumping for joy as he ran down the hallway.