This is effectively a discontinuation of the 'From willow to Oak' series that I had started up before, generally because of reasons that are spoilerific. (Kindly remind me, NaruSaku fans, what pride comes before)

Either way, this idea popped into my head. It was funny. In this, Kakashi is presumed permanently dead, and whatever Pain and Konan do now has been glazed over. Enjoy.

Schhhluuuuurp

Guwikpopahhschhhhluuuuup

Guwikguwikguwikdookdookpopschluuuupppp

Onlookers stared. Men sweeping the dust off of streets and hammering spars into place paused as the gastronomically-enhanced explosions sounded through the air. Drops of salty broth, furiously airborne from the rate the noodles were guzzled arced through the air and into the faces of other patrons at the new stand by the road. One figure seated at the stand carried on, oblivious, and wiped its mouth with a coatsleeve, setting the now empty noodle bowl down on the wood.

Urp.

"Another one!"

"Miso again?"

"Make it a big one!"

Another bowl slid into place in front of a yellow hurricane, chopsticks poised and ready to devour with wholehearted ambition. The very second the owner's hands were removed, they struck, the wide quivering noodles caught and ensnared between the thin utensils, brought en masse into the gaping, grinning maw.

OMNOMguwikguwikguwikgulpurpschlurpnomgulp

The eyes of the onlookers, now in a state of terrified halt, now doubled in surprise as they discovered no, they weren't dreaming and yes, this was actually happening in front of them. Four bowls next to the chewing figure stood empty, a testament to the incredible stomach capacity of one Naruto Uzumaki. Some of the more informed of the civilians would have noticed and identified the ninja beside him. To his immediate left, sporting a look of irritated exasperation, was the young strategic genius Nara, his ponytail weighted down in the middle from a slowly forming pool of caught ramen broth. Anybody who knew him well enough also knew why he didn't bother to remove the liquid heart attack.

In the stool to his right, the supposed-maybe scion of the Hyuuga clan, Hinata, who looked to be trying to enjoy her own ramen in peace, occasionally sending cautious glances Naruto's way. Although certain rumours had circulated about a confession, a series of gentle questions and one angry Hyuuga Head demanding why his daughter had such a poor ability in time management, nothing had been proven. To her left sat two other Kunoichi, the possibly foreign Tenten and the most definitely blonde Yamanaka Ino, both showing varying levels of disgust at the airborne soup.

Urp…uuuuurp. Omnomnomnomschluuuurpschluuurpurp-ackcoughcoughblehschluuuurp

To Shikamaru's left sat Haruno Sakura, the possible successor to Hokagedom after her mentor, Tsunade. Rumours also flew around about how she had confined her master to bed after over-exerting her Infuin whilst healing the villagers. Her skills at handling paperwork and deciding on delegations to request aid from the more benevolent countries and Daimyo technically hadn't been in her training, but she handled it well enough. It was her idea to send off to a hidden village of 'Woodsingers', Ninja with the ability to speed the growth of seeds into houses and furniture, with acceptable results. The recovery of the village was sound, the payment was vague, and some whispered of shadowy dealings with the morgue… Although to look at her now, wrinkling her nose in dismay at the blond boy's antics, you wouldn't know.

To her left sat Chouji, the young Akimichi eating perhaps just as much as Naruto was, but with considerably more restraint. If was something telling of the man that his lowered appetite was not due to taste or decorum, but more in the fact that he had been experiencing Nightmares since Pain's attack. His father had almost fallen to his wounds, the Copy-nin Kakashi died despite all attempts to revive him, the Medic-nin Shizune's body had been brought back… but she ('It') was soon put back to rest. There was a difference between Resurrection and Necromancy, one that the villagers of the leaf respected. Chouji could still see her lurching corpse at night, whenever his eyes were shut.

Gulp… gulp… gulp… dookdookdookpaaaaaaah!

"Say what you will, but even Lee wouldn't eat like that." Tenten murmured into Ino's ear, jerking upright guiltily when Hinata gave her a pleading look. "Uhhh… I mean… ah, sorry." She apologized, reminding herself that the girl's confession had been met with awkward silence when she reminded the Jinchuriki. "But come on, he's putting it away like air! Make him eat vegetables! Make him eat something solid!"

"If he's anything like Chouji, good luck." Ino shuddered, "Don't get me wrong, I like the guys, but there's no way their digestive system is anything like ours." She pointed out the Takoyaki dished on a curled plate in front of the redhead. He slowly, with almost painstaking precision, skewered one on a chopstick, rolling it into his mouth and hummed at the flavour.

"Men are simple creatures, with simple tastes." Shikamaru defended from next to him, apparently keeping a tab on the girl's conversation. "But we can have variety, if only because there's nothing more troublesome than constipation."

"Gross. And look at Naruto!" Ino bleched. The blond had more or less attached his face to the bowl

Urp.

"Somebody call me?" Naruto dug his head out of the bowl, setting it aside. He turned his head both ways, catching Shikamaru's head lying on the table, waving lazily. Sakura was attempting to manoeuvre a pair of bean sprouts out of her bowl, Chouji was still munching. He turned his head again. Hinata's permanent blush, Tenten's smirk and Ino's scowl met his gaze.

"Variety, Naruto. We were discussing how you don't have any." Tenten drawled, fiddling with her own bowl offhandedly.

"Variety? I've got plenty of variety!"

"Prove it. Name us twenty different foods you eat."

"Right…"

Naruto scrunched up his face, trying to remember. Shaking his head, he instead turned to the menu hung up in the back on the shop. The girls collectively sighed as he muttered something akin to 'I can never remember the last one.'

"Right, I eat Pork Ramen, Miso Ramen, Curry Ramen, Beef Ramen, Menchi Ramen, Chicken Ramen…"

Tenten snorted, shaking her head and reaching over to tug Hinata's collar. "Can you pick them or what?" She joked, earning a light chuckle from Ino and a scandalized giggle from Hinata.

"… Ramen with Gyoza, Tempura Ramen, Ramen Deluxe, Take Ramen…"

"On the bright side, he isn't splashing us anymore." Sakura mumbled to herself, Shikamaru let loose a solitary 'Heh' as his response. Chouji paused from his connoisseural escapade to lend an ear to Naruto's listing.

"… Shoyu Ramen, Kitakita Ramen, Hakata Ramen, Tsukemen, Aburasoba…"

Hinata seemed to slowly descend into her seat as the giggling to her right intensified. Sakura and Shikamaru sighed in unison, the former nudging the latter and sliding her mostly-empty bowl over to the genius. A querying look, a view at the bowl, a smile.

'Thanks for saving me the soup.'

Sakura groaned. Trust him to only want the part that didn't need chewing.

"… Udon, Su Udon, Tanuki Udon, Kitsune Udon, Rice…"

The girl's ears picked up.

"… With Udon…"

They dropped again, and the laughter reheated. Chouji was also beginning to contribute, listing his favourite places to eat, rather than dishes.

"There's this awesome place just to the left of the stairs to the Bensai district…"

"… Soba, Yakisoba, Yakiudon, I've forgotten the name of that dish with the meat-filled noodles, but that was-…"

"… And there was the park with all of the flowers, on clear nights you can see the moon through the Sakura and the petals taste so sweet on a dumpling…"

"… Seriously, guys, what was it called?"

"That's enough, Naruto." Sakura grumbled, tugging at his ear. "Your soup is getting cold."

With sighs of relief, Naruto ceased his litany and concentrated once more on his beloved Ramen. The sounds of intense digestion filled the air, along with Chouji's prose on eating locations.

Tenten nodded, leaving a few Ryo on the counter to handle her tab, beckoning to the already-long-finished Hinata and Ino to follow her. Waving their goodbyes (Answered by a lazy grunt, a half-hearted wave and a pair of slurps) the trio of kunoichi set off through the newly constructed streets of Konoha-no-futaba, where even as they watched pairs of Kage-bunshin set tiles into an apartment roof and dug up the road for slabs of broken concrete. The stepped into one of the hollow paths, when Tenten snorted and broke out into peels of laughter, drawing a few comments from bystanders.

'Is there a gas leak?'

'What's her last name again?'

'The Hell 'ttebayo?'

"Sorry, sorry. I was kind of thinking about places to eat and then I remembered what Chouji said and… heh heh, I reckon I've been reading too much subliminal messaging text…"

Hinata blinked at Ino behind her back, who shrugged.

"I mean, I love to eat Sakura's dumplings in the park… Hehehehehe…'

Ino rolled her eyes; Hinata turned a new shade of red.

"Did somebody spike your bowl? This isn't like you." Hinata finally said aloud, perking up slightly at Ino's 'Hear hear'. Concurrence with her opinions was usually restricted to her team or Hanabi (On the rare occasions they had spoken), and the solidarity of her peers was a pleasant if difficult pill to swallow.

"… I did say I was sorry, right?" Tenten sniffed, "I guess it's still a little raw for me. Village boundaries are shrinking, and you know what that means."

"Border patrol, huh? How many shifts are you pulling?"

"I'm skirting the Grass and Rain borders. Not much on the Rain side, especially now that Pain's been… well… anyway, it's about as fun as waxing."

"I've still got work at the Florists. We lost about a third of our field stocks, and you know what that means."

Tenten nodded. The Yamanaka family supplied at least half the poisons and several antidote bases through their botanist lineage. With so many injured during the Akatsuki attack, medicine was more important than manpower.

"So, Hinata? What's new?" The two of them turned to face their quiet companion, who breathed out in surprise at the sudden attention. "Well, Father heard about my defence of the village and K-kurenai-sensei, and he wasn't very impressed…"

"Figures."

"But he respected my decision to first ensure that the Hyuuga household wasn't badly damaged. Koh was very helpful, he managed to convince the elders that preventing a Bijuu from falling to Akatuski hands was a greater priority than shoring up the front gate."

"Good for him."

"… but only just." Hinata couldn't help but add. Tenten blinked in response.

"Was that a joke? Little Hina-chan joking about her anal family?"

"Mark it off on the calendar. So how is Koh, anyway?"

"His cast comes off tomorrow. He wanted to have six weeks to heal so that the Medics wouldn't be too troubled."

"I'll bet it's just so he doesn't have to work." Ino pointed out.

"Most likely." Hinata nodded.

They walked on silently, each feeling their own version of subtle exhaustion. Ino's hair showed split ends and tiny clumps of biddy-bid seeds that had lodged themselves in her search for wild strains of herbs, a sign of how even the vain Yamanaka couldn't find much time to beautify herself. Tenten's eyes were beginning to bag, a dark sheen ('Mascara de Gaara' Temari had joked, before ducking the angry flurry of Kunai) that surrounded her sclera. Hinata fidgeted less, and had a habit of overcompensating her turns, resulting in possibly the first-ever command from her father that she not train her Kaiten until she could stop it from demolishing whatever she was within ten metres of.

Thus, the three of them offered silent thanks to Naruto. Weeks of rebuilding, diplomacy and mild paranoia had culminated and ebbed away when the youngest Sage of the world declared that he himself would pay for the Rookie twelve's meals at the newly opened Ichiraku Ramen store. These weeks were unpaid, but a little speech from Naruto about the importance of national pride and 'Making things better' had somewhat changed the minds of uncooperative villagers. That and the giant menacing frogs. And the angry faces of Hyuuga Neji and Inuzuka Kiba. And the great menacing buzz of the combined Aburame hives. And the out-of-place grimaces on the two green beasts of Konoha.

Naruto had to have known his friends were intimidating them. He had to.

Ino and Hinata, however, had been to enough clan meetings to know there were difficulties. Either as stand-ins or attendants, they had nonetheless come by information of the financial kind. Konoha was rich, absolutely, and Naruto provided a great deal of the labour required in the rebuilding of the village, but materials were still hard to come by. Yamato and the Tree-nin could only produce so much wood, and even then it was only a few different kinds. Stone needed hewing; timber needed treatment, water and food needed to be found. Konoha sifted through the coffers and found them full, but soon the expenses began to pile up.

At first, Gaara in his official stature of Kazekage had offered Nin and capital (On interest, but reasonably so) to support the leaf, but his council limited the support he could supply. Waterfall also offered a loan, but was refused after a summary argument over rates of repayment. Konoha seemed to be nearing bankruptcy…

… Until aid came from an unlikely sector. The Hyuuga, with their numerous connections and clout, managed to secure the leaf's position. The village was saved…

… But now the people of the Sun wanted their recompensation. Hinata knew that somehow, if her father were to have any way to be rid of her and place Hanabi on the next heirdom, it would likely be this way. A political alliance, a marriage for reward, blood for money.

"Ah! Idiot! I knew I'd forgotten something!" Ino slapped her forehead, before reaching down to withdraw a thin scroll from a backside pocket. "The housing tally. Naruto needs to know if we'll need to expand past the walls to accommodate the tents now that we're missing a chunk of the village. Hinata, would you…?"

"I don't know whether to hug you or hit you, Ino." Hinata huffed, irritated that her most open weak spot was the one most openly prodded. She wouldn't miss a chance to speak with Naruto, and that was exploited by her friends whenever possible.

"You're a princess. Literally. See you around, don't be a stranger!" The perky blonde bounced away, presumably to a hot bath. Tenten gave a wave of her own and set off towards her apartment.

Hinata groaned, and tried to figure out how to introduce herself in. After her confession, things had been… odd. Painful, mostly. She was trying to think of the word that described the state between her and Naruto. It was… stalled. Inconvenient. Put on hold.

"Limbo, that's the word."

She shook her head, feeling the unaccustomed roughness of her unwashed hair brush against her neck in the dusk. After the battle, Naruto woke up after dropped out of fatigue in the middle of the village, she had hesitantly opened the tent flap to his stretcher and asked if he was well.

And they talked.

I don't know.

I don't know what to say.

I don't think that either of us have time for this. We have a village to save.

I love you.

Thank you.

Afterwards, maybe we can talk…

Afterwards, then.

Nothing definite. But it was a start. He would think, and she could hope. If was with those neutral thoughts in mind that she lifted the door-flap of Ichiraku's to find Naruto alone with his sixth bowl.

"Naruto-kun, I-Ino had something for you." She cursed her stammering, but old habits died hard. He looked up, blinking with a trail of dripping noodles in his mouth, and she stomped down a giggle before it surfaced.

"Furgh megh? Isht nobt anaba schtalka, isht icht?" He mumbled, before remembering to swallow.

Urp

"That's better. Now, what's the note?" He held out a hand, gripping the wooden end of the scroll lightly as ownership passed.

"Housing arrangements."

"Oh, for-… This is the stuff I need Dad for… or Ebisu. Why can't we just put the houses on stilts on top of the crater?" He whined as he looked over the details. "So what if it's too big to fill with Doton? So what if it's becoming a lake? I like lakes! Did you ever see the houses built beside the Great Naruto Bridge? They were freaking sweet!"

Hinata let the ramblings roll over her, gentle and vaguely interlocked with the rolling of his lips. Once again, her thoughts turned to the boy's insufferable energy, and those thoughts turned to power, to purity, to stamina…

"… and then your dad asked me out to dinner."

Hinata jolted out of her little daydream with that unfortunate sentence.

"What?"

"Your dad –Hiashi, right?- wants to go out to dinner with me. Something about how much the village owes him and how I'm the spokesdude thingy and stuff. I told Tsunade but she threw things and me and told me that my jokes sucked. Sakura just said that even Izanami couldn't help my sorry ass. Anything I should know before I meet up with him?"

Father wants to discuss something with Naruto-kun.

Father wants to discuss payment.

I'm the likely form of payment. I'm the payment of opportunity.

To the village. Or to…

Hinata stared. Naruto shifted around, feeling uncomfortable.

"For a start, Naruto-kun, you'll need to learn some table manners."

Reviews, Feedback and comments are always welcome. The more you give me, the faster I make a new chapter. Selfish, but I'm a selfish man.