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THE HEALING RAMEN
Kakashi doesn’t think he’s ever seen Naruto like this before. It’s not just sadness but something more. The boy had been sad when Sasuke left, yes, but he was also angry, determined and hopeful to bring him back. But now, after Tsunade-Sama told him he shouldn’t use his Rasen Shuriken again, he seems …. resigned…… quiet ….. hopeless. All of the things he never thought he would glimpse in Naruto’s demeanor. It’s terrifying actually, to see his ever-energetic student be so quiet and accepting of defeat. Kakashi also knows he isn’t a good teacher. If he was, maybe his team would be whole still. But no time to dwell on that now. He looks from his lumpy hospital bed to the peacefully sleeping Naruto in the next one over. He made up his mind. He would do something nice for the boy.
He was deep in thought when he heard Sakura come in. She looked surprised to see him there.
“I didn’t think you’d still be here, Sensei.”
Of course, she would think that, he was notoriously known for escaping hospitals, after all. But today he wanted to keep an eye on Naruto. Sakura doesn’t need to know that though.
“Maa, I was just immersed in reading and lost track of time” he said gesturing to his beloved copy of Icha Icha.
“Naruto will be fine, Sensei. He just needs some rest and so do you.”
She knows then. She was always pretty smart.
“In that case I think I’ll leave now. No cause for concern with you here anyway.” He gave her his eye smile. “But don’t work too hard, Sakura and take your own advice.”
Another surprise and then a blush after she takes in the praise.
Is he such a bad teacher that she was surprised at a few nice words? Well, guess he has to do better. Maybe he could invite her over for dinner along with Naruto? He doesn’t think she can cook and judging by the taste of the soldier pills she’s been making recently, he is sure both his students are horrible cooks. The idea seems appealing the more he ponders on it. He is, admittedly, a much better cook as he has been cooking for himself since he was five years old. Now he just has to think of a way to invite them.
“How long is Naruto going to stay here?”
“Not long. He’ll probably be released after he wakes up with strict instructions of bed rest.”
She then looks down and wrings her hands, a nervous tick, so Kakashi waits patiently until she talks while tidying up his bed and getting ready to go.
She finally lifts her eyes, resolves herself and says “we’ve been so busy with training and missions the past few days that I thought we could go out to eat as a team, Sensei.”
He’s pleased he doesn’t have to bring up the topic. “Shouldn’t Naruto be eating healthy? He’s going to want to go to Ichiraku as always.”
Her face falls and she’s hesitant when she says “Oh… We could go anywhere else, or… you're right, we should probably wait until-”
“You could both come over to my place. I can cook something healthy for us," he says taking pity on her.
Again, surprise. But this time she’s smiling so he thinks it’s fine. “Oh. That sounds nice, Sensei, we’ll be there by seven.”
“Good.” He walks away flicking two fingers over his shoulder as a goodbye.
It’s already 5:30pm and Kakashi still hasn’t decided what to make. Naruto loves ramen and the rest of team seven got used to it over time. But he had used the excuse of ramen not being healthy to invite them over in the first place that he can’t cook it now. Unless ….., he suddenly remembered a special recipe of healthy ramen Kushina-san used to make when he was young. He remembers Sensei telling Kushina she shouldn’t eat ramen so often because its not healthy. Kushina-san being as obsessed with ramen as she is, took it as a challenge and created an entire new recipe of ramen with lots of vegetables and greens and other healthy stuff without compromising on the taste. She took a month to perfect it and refused to share the recipe when Sensei asked, even if it was to cook the dish for her.
To his surprise, she shared it with him, as a gift for making jounin. She also told him that she was bestowing a great honor upon him by sharing her recipe. He thanked her but didn’t really care too much back then because he was still a bratty kid who didn’t know the importance of family. And then Obito had died and then Rin and he forgot about it. Sensei and Kushina tried to feed him, take care of him but he was numb, distant and too much in pain to appreciate or reciprocate.
Kushina wasn’t one to give up, though. She bullied him into having lunches or dinner with them while he was guarding her. Initially, he didn’t budge. He was, after all, an ANBU guarding Konoha’s Jinchuriki. It was a very important job and ANBU didn’t have leisurely family dinners, they were weapons. But Kushina persisted and the more she kept trying to include him, the more he felt his resolve chipping away. By the end he was just so tired and weak that he gave in. Kushina made this particular recipe at least three times a week because, of course, it was her favourite but also because she strongly believed that by feeding ramen to Naruto while still in the womb, she could introduce him to the wonders of it early enough, that the child would have no choice but to love it even after coming out. Minato Sensei was fondly exasperated but went along with it.
He hasn’t thought of this in a while but it suddenly dawns on him that Kushina succeeded in making her son ramen obsessed. He can’t help the fond smile on his lips. In short, he never made the dish but Naruto deserved it. He should be having it by Kushina-san’s own hand but since she can’t do it herself, he thinks she would appreciate it if Naruto gets to have it from him.
Deciding, he looks for the recipe she wrote out for him. He had stored it in his “team seven and Kushina-san” box of things. And there it is, beside Minato Sensei’s three-pronged kunai, Obito’s goggles and Rin’s kit. He looks over these things but he has no time to get caught up in the past, so he gently takes the paper out and starts on the dish. An hour later and he’s surprised himself by how accurate it turned out. Kushina-san would be proud.
It's past seven and just as he’s thinking his kids are taking revenge for his constant tardiness, there’s a knock on the door. He opens the door to find his two students looking nervous and shuffling from foot to foot. To no one’s surprise, Naruto is the first to speak.
“Hey, Sensei!”
Sakura smiles and he lets them both in.
“How are you feeling, Naruto?”
“I’m completely cured, Sensei, believe it!”
He can’t help it, he chuckles and directs them to the couch. They’ve been to his house before and they’ve eaten together before but he’s never cooked for them until now and the realization hits him that he’s nervous of finding out if they’ll like it. He’s come so far from the bratty kid who doesn’t care about others.
He clears his throat.
“Alright, go wash up and help me set the table, both of you.”
He brings out the tea and the sides first and finally brings out the ramen last. It’s heavy, because he went overboard and made too much. Oh, well, he’ll just save the leftovers for Tenzo and Sai. They are part of team seven too and are currently on a mission.
They settle down around the table. The moment Kakashi sets down the ramen and removes the lid to serve, Naruto’s face lights up like fireworks.
“Aw, Sensei, you made Ramen? You’re the best!” he all but shouts. (Ramen is always with a capital R for Naruto – A/N)
“I thought we were going to eat healthy, Sensei.” Sakura smiles at him fondly. He is undeserving of these looks and smiles but he soaks them up all the same.
"It is healthy, Sakura. It is a special recipe passed down to me by a ….. friend. As close to family as I had at the time.”
“……….. At the time?” Sakura hedges hesitantly.
He revealed more than he intended, didn’t he?
“Yes, they sacrificed themselves for the village but the recipe lives on. Go ahead, taste it.” He thinks he’s allowed to say at least that much.
They both lower their eyes taking large servings on to their plates and the moment the ramen touches their tongues, the kids start making appreciative noises. Naruto, of course, is inhaling the ramen at the speed of light and trying to speak at the same time.
“choo…. Goo…Sens…”
“Naruto, baka, eat slowly. You just got discharged from the hospital,” Sakura scolds which does not deter the boy in the slightest and prompts the girl to hit his head lightly.
“Sakura chaaan….” Naruto whines.
“It’s not going anywhere, Naruto, eat slowly. Don’t you want to savour it?”
“Ugh…fine” he slows down (very little) and Sakura goes back to eating, satisfied.
Kakashi is so busy staring at his kids’ joyful expressions that he didn’t start. He slowly breaks his chopsticks and Naruto is already asking for seconds. He tells them there is enough and not to hesitate, looking especially at Sakura because she is more likely to eat less to be proper. Her cheeks turn red out of embarrassment, but she goes back for more, so he counts it as a success. They get busy eating for a while.
After two more bowls (four in case of Naruto), Sakura starts conversation again.
“This is great, Sensei. I didn’t know you could cook. When did you learn?” she asks curiously. Naruto looks at him too.
Kakashi must be drunk on how much his students are enjoying this because he says “Maa, it’s not a big deal. I lived alone since I was five years old. It was logical to learn to cook.” He doesn’t realize he revealed something until he looks at his students faces.
It’s not even too much information but Kakashi is so reclusive that they are staring at him wide eyed reveling in the little bits of information their Sensei gives up.
“You…. lived alone since you were five, Sensei?” Naruto’s voice breaks a little and so does Kakashi’s heart because Naruto lived alone since he was five too, didn’t he? Except Kakashi had his father until five and he used to help out in the kitchen but Naruto didn’t have anyone to teach him. Kakashi would know, he had guarded the kid as an ANBU. That was the only way he could watch over his Sensei’s son… from afar.
So, he decides he’ll answer this.
“My father died when I was five and my mother was gone long before.”
“I’m sorry, Sensei.” Sakura, the only person in this team who knows tact and social cues says, softly. Naruto is still a little teary eyed.
“It’s alright. I used to help my father cook and after he passed, I slowly learned to cook by myself.”
Naruto looks like he never thought his Sensei could have been a child or that he could have had a father. Kakashi understands. Kids don’t tend to think the adults in their life as having been kids or having had childhoods. Though he didn’t have one anyway. He thinks this topic is over but this time it’s Naruto who speaks.
“The White Fang…” he says softly and Kakashi startles. “Chiyo-baa-Sama thought you were him. Is that your father?”
“I didn’t think you’d remember Naruto, but yes. The White Fang is my father.”
Sakura’s eyes are sparkling with admiration and Kakashi feels a little proud of his father. “The White Fang is said to be as strong as the Sannin. Is it true, Sensei?”
“Whaaaa…. He was?” Naruto shouts out, shocked.
“He was even mentioned in history, Naruto. It comes up in our academy syllabus. Only a few sentences though.”
“He did win a few fights against Jiraiya-Sama, so I’ll say its true” Kakashi said with a smile. (An eye smile of course, fond and nostalgic.)
Kakashi is surprised he was able to talk about his father at all. He is proud of himself.
“He won against Ero-Sennin? That’s so cool!!!” They both have stars in their eyes now. But he can’t talk about this anymore so as always, he deflects. Seeing their bowls empty but not ready to let them go yet, he says,
“Help me clean up and we can play UNO if you guys want.” He is met with shouts of approval from Naruto and enthusiastic nodding from Sakura.
They set to work washing the dishes and Kakashi thinks this is the most content he’s been in a long time. He’s washing, Naruto’s drying, and Sakura is placing them on the shelves. Naruto didn’t want to dry but after he put the dishes in the wrong place, dropped a bowl and made a complete mess, Sakura took charge and put him on drying duty. After that he summons Pakkun and gave him a note to leave at Tenzo’s and Sai’s places telling them to come over for leftovers after their mission and joins his students who are already bickering on how to play the game correctly.
They are setting the game up while effortlessly bantering and Kakashi watches them with a warm feeling in his heart. These are his students and he’ll do anything for them. He makes a quick promise to himself again to protect them no matter what. He sits down beside them, and they play a couple of card games for a while. Only when they stop does he see that its late and decides to call it a night.
They start picking up the cards that are all over the floor by now. (Naruto is too enthusiastic, Sakura is too competitive and Kakashi cheats) Kakashi should have suspected that the theme of revelations for today would continue. He was naïve to think its over. He hears Sakura say loudly “Don’t slack off Naruto. There are more around you, pick them up.”
But Naruto doesn’t seem to be listening to her at all. He’s busy staring at something with his brows furrowed. At first it looks like just another card but then he realizes that it is the photo he was looking at before his students knocked on his door. It’s team seven photo. More precisely, its his team seven. Team Minato.
His first reaction is to panic because its too much and he doesn’t know what he should do. But he is a shinobi, an ANBU no less so he sighs and thinks. He realises its good that Naruto saw it because now he can tell Naruto about his father even if the kid won’t know that it’s his father. A loophole in a sense. No one can point fingers at him for talking about the Yondaime with young genin. So, he decides that this revelation, he is actually happy about.
Sakura realises Naruto isn’t listening and crawls on her knees to look over his shoulder and gasps.
“Is – is that…?” her voice chokes off.
Then its Naruto’s turn.
“Is that white haired brat mini-Sensei?!” he guffaws out and Sakura snickers.
Kakashi in his excitement of being able to talk about his Sensei completely forgot that he is in that photo as well, that too, in the most unflattering way.
“You have a sullen expression just like Sasuke-teme!” Naruto bursts out.
“Okay, that’s enough. Its my genin team photo. Give it here” Kakashi demands.
That’s when they start to notice the others in the picture. Naruto looks like he’s trying hard to concentrate again when he says “Hey, hey, the Sensei looks familiar. Do you think we know him, Sakura chan?”
This is exactly when Sakura gets a good look at the teacher because instantly her demeanour changes. She goes still, puts a hand over her mouth, looks straight at Kakashi pointing a finger at him and shouts incredulously
“Your Sensei was the Yondaime?!”
Then it hits Naruto, and he starts glaring at Kakashi.
“You didn’t tell us that your jounin sensei was the Yondaime?!” Naruto looks properly outraged and Kakashi is… amused. His little troublemakers look so cute that he can’t help but chuckle and then eye smile for good measure before answering
“Maa, I thought you guys knew. Didn’t I tell you?” he asks innocently.
“NO!” two voices shout at the same time.
“Well, he is.” Kakashi says.
They’re looking at him like he’ll elaborate but he infuriatingly keeps his mouth shut.
“Whaa… you can’t leave us hanging like this—”
“You have to tell us, Sens—"
They talk at the same time and glare at each other. Kakashi takes pity on them and says,
“If you clean this up and drag your beds here in the next five minutes then I will tell you stories about Sensei that no one else knows.”
He’s never seen his kids move so fast before. He looks at them fondly and thinks he’ll tell a couple stories about Kushina too. Naruto will learn about his mother and Sakura can have a Kunoichi role model. They have a lot in common after all. They are both stubborn, too strong and won’t give up. And Naruto can learn from his favourite Hokage and someday he hopes, no, he knows, will surpass his father. Even before the thought is done the kids are all set up. They pull him to the middle, lay down on either side of him and look at him expectantly. This is what it feels like to have a family. With his heart full, he starts his story.
“Should I tell you about the time Sensei completely demolished five Kumo ninja including a metal user?”
His kids are listening with wide eyes and hanging onto his every word and Kakashi thinks there is nowhere in this world he’d rather be than right here by his students’ side looking at their wide, earnest eyes and small, content smiles.
After wrangling three stories out of him, his little demons are finally asleep. He looks one last time at their peaceful faces and closes his eyes. Surprisingly, sleep claims him almost immediately which is a rare occurrence for Kakashi, and he sleeps completely dreamless for the first time in a really long time.
***
Tenzo comes home at the crack of dawn to find a note on his table. A bright pink note with tacky dog stickers and a henohenomoheji.