Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreon @
[ https://www(dot)patreon(dot)com/fictiononlyreader ]
The link is also in the synopsis
———
.
"Well, I shouldn't say I'm surprised," Takuma said as he gazed at the modest shophouse. The street-level facade served as an open-air kitchen and dining counter, while the upper level was the family's private living space.
White curtains defined the storefront, divided into vertical panels that hung halfway down to give those inside a sense of privacy. Bold, hand-painted calligraphy spelt out—Ichiraku—in dark ink across the fabric. Flanking the entrance, a giant lantern swayed gently under the dark tile awning with "ramen" painted on it with exaggerated brushstrokes.
Takuma took in the thick plume of fragrant, savoury steam rolling through the slit curtains. It carried the rich, heavy scent of slow-simmered pork bone broth, a blend of spices, and starchy water. Despite having lived in the Hidden Leaf Village for so many years, he had never visited the iconic ramen joint even once. Be it subconsciously or intentionally, he avoided the joint so as not to run into one of the shop's regulars accidentally. In fact, it had been a year since he had eaten ramen. He didn't really crave it, and when he did, he preferred tsukemen over ramen. It was simply the superior noodle dish.
Two pairs of legs—one adult in the Leaf uniform and one tween in a kimono—dangled from the weathered, round wooden stools lined along the open-air counter. Naruto's rambunctious voice leaked into the street, and there was a joy in his voice that put a smile on Takuma's face.
"And then, BAM! I'll kick down the door to the bandit hideout!" The boy was vibrating on his wooden stool, waving a pair of chopsticks in the air like twin kunai. "The boss will try to run, but he'll be shocked to see me behind him and will turn wide-eyed to see two more of me there. He'll be outnumbered and will get the whooping of his life!"
"Well, look at that," Takuma said as he pushed the curtains aside to step through and saw the forehead protector around Naruto's head, his green goggles sitting on the counter in front of him. "It looks good on you. Congratulations, Naruto—no, I should say: Congratulations, Genin Naruto."
"Hehehe, thanks, Chūnin Panda Eyes!" Naruto laughed, his voice stinging Iruka's ears as he sat beside him.
"Glad you could make it, Takuma," Iruka said, his eyes crinkling in a warm smile. The academy instructor looked like he had barely survived the nightmare that was running around to make sure the convocation went without a hitch.
"Well, I did promise I'd be here," Takuma replied as he sat down before introducing himself to the Ichiraku father-daughter duo behind the counter, who were among Naruto's biggest supporters and an essential part of his tiny personal community within the Hidden Leaf Village.
"Well, a brand new shinobi needs to be fed with the finest meal!" Teuchi boomed from the kitchen, his hearty laugh cutting through the hiss of boiling water. With masterful ease, the old chef flicked a massive net of noodles into a strainer. "You're going to need a lot of fuel if you're going to take down the bandit bosses by yourself, Naruto."
"Extra pork for the new shinobi," Ayame chimed in brightly. She leaned over the counter, setting down a steaming, oversized bowl of miso tonkotsu ramen with extra braised pork belly in front of the boy. She gave the metal plate on his forehead a playful tap. "Look at you. A real ninja. We're going to have to start charging you the elite shinobi rate soon."
"No way, Ayame, you can't do that to me!" Naruto squawked, though his eyes were completely starry, mesmerised by the sheer volume of food and praise. He snapped his chopsticks apart. "But no matter! I'll be doing A—no, S-rank missions soon enough. You can charge me anything at that point… I'll buy you guys a whole new restaurant, or we will expand this one, believe it!"
Takuma picked up the cup of hot tea Iruka slid toward him. Over the rim of the ceramic cup, he met Iruka's gaze. They didn't say a word because the life of a green genin and glory were antithetical to each other. The reality was day after day of odd jobs in the form of D-rank missions to meet quotas. Even for those selected by jōnin, there was a period where they were treated as menial labour, even if it was short. Naruto would be no exception until the life-changing mission, which would be a C-rank mission but would turn into something difficult even for their jōnin teacher. Until that day, the most dangerous thing he was going to face was a feral tabby with sharp claws.
Iruka took a slow sip of his tea, suppressing a knowing smirk.
"So, did you see your assignment?" Takuma asked as he received his order: light shio ramen with thin noodles and no meat toppings.
"I think so," Naruto said with a mouthful of noodles and got scolded by Iruka. "They'll reveal my team and teacher at the academy the day after tomorrow. Hey, Iruka-sensei, do you know who I'm going to be put on a team with? You know, right? Tell me, pretty please?"
"No, I don't know, Naruto."
"I'll give you one of my pork slices."
"Tempting, but my answer is still no."
Naruto pestered his teacher some more, then inhaled a bowl of noodles at a concerning speed before turning to Takuma. "Hey, Panda Eyes. What was your first jutsu? I will learn that one."
"Mine?" Takuma asked, surprised.
"Yeah, it must be really awesome, right?" Naruto said eagerly.
Takuma couldn't help but burst out laughing. "Well, yes, it's a really good jutsu, but I wasn't good at it. In fact, I'm still not good at it." If he and Nenro used Lightning Release: Shock, his friend's would be much more powerful. "I wasn't a good match for it."
"Eh, then why did you get it?"
Iruka sighed, looking embarrassed because Naruto was his student. If it was any consolation, the Ichiraku duo were civilians and didn't really know anything, and Takuma already knew how dumb Naruto could be. He quickly explained the concept of chakra affinities to him.
"Does that mean that I'll have to waste my time with jutsu that I'll be bad with until I find the right one?" Naruto whined, all the while receiving a new bowl of ramen and crushing extra garlic into the broth.
"Not exactly," Iruka said. "You start with a Fire Release ninjutsu because that's the most common affinity found in Leaf shinobi, and there's a high chance that it'd be your affinity as well."
Takuma realised the logic behind Iruka's words and was suddenly embarrassed because it never occurred to him to take into account the well-known fact about the genetic quirk of the Land of Fire natives and their tendency to have the fire nature as their strongest affinity. None of that had occurred to him when he was making his choice back when he was in Genin Corps Basic Training.
"Well, fire is strong and cool, so I guess that'd be fine," Naruto said, contemplating what he would look like while using a Fire Release ninjutsu.
"And even if fire isn't for you, trying all the elements is a good experience. It'd give you an understanding of them that may save your life one day, even if you aren't good at them. If you want to be a good shinobi, you must try all different types of things." Iruka patted Takuma's shoulder. "Learn from him. I don't know if he does it now, but Takuma used to carry around a list of all the different things he knows. There were a lot of things on that list, and he's a great shinobi because he learned all of those things."
Takuma, in fact, no longer carried his resume on him. He had job security and wasn't thinking about switching jobs at the moment. "Chūnin Iruka is right," he said. "Trying all sorts of things to find something you're good at is very important. Instead of trying to get good at the cool thing, find something and be so great at it that others start thinking that it's cool."
Those words seemed to strike Naruto as he—to everyone's surprise—stopped eating for a moment to think about Takuma's words. It only lasted for a few seconds before he went back to stuffing his face.
"Saying all that, I have a graduation gift that would make things easier for you," Takuma said.
"A gift?" Naruto's eyes were shining. It was clear that he hadn't received many gifts in his life, and every one felt like an event in itself. "Is it a super cool sword?"
"Do you know how to use a sword?" Takuma asked.
"…No."
"Finish eating. I need your hands clean for this."
It took Naruto another thirty minutes and loosening the belt holding his kimono twice before he was satisfied. Iruka's wallet looked significantly lighter even after the Ichiraku special graduation discount.
"Here you go." Naruto received an envelope from Takuma and initially looked so openly disappointed that it made the latter laugh. "It's okay. There's nothing for you to read in there," Takuma said.
Naruto cut the glued seal with a knife from the kitchen. Everyone watched in curiosity, especially the Ichiraku duo, because Takuma said it was something rare even for shinobi. Naruto looked inside the envelope with one eye closed, frowned, and then tipped out the contents onto the counter.
Iruka gasped when two square slips of thin but handmade paper, each small enough to fit in the palm, slipped out of the envelope.
"Paper?" Naruto said, frowning even harder than before.
"Would you like to explain?" Takuma said to Iruka, who was staring at him with wide eyes. The instructor recognised the paper and wasn't expecting a gift of such magnitude.
"That's no ordinary paper, Naruto," Iruka said as he stared at the piece of paper. "It's called the chakra induction paper. It's used to identify a shinobi's strongest affinity. We were talking about cycling between ninjutsu until you found your affinity, but you can find it instantly with that piece of paper."
"Eh, if something like that exists, why would you waste all that money on buying jutsu? I'm sure jutsu aren't cheap," Ayame asked, picking up one of the square slips that looked no different from any other piece of paper.
"Jutsu aren't cheap, no, but learning one jutsu from each release is still cheaper than getting one of those slips of paper because it's inordinately difficult to correctly grow the special type of tree that is used to make the type of paper," Iruka said and then looked at Takuma. "And you bought two of them."
Ayame seized up, realising the worth of the ordinary-looking paper she was holding and very carefully returning it to Iruka, who, too, looked uncomfortable holding it. It wasn't something that even a chūnin could buy without long and careful consideration of whether their savings could take a hit.
"Actually, they come in pairs," Takuma said. He had gone to the ANBU quartermaster to return one of the slips because he thought he had received two by mistake when he had only paid for one of them. "Naruto, channel some chakra into that slip. The reaction will tell us your strongest affinity, and you can focus on that elemental release for your ninjutsu."
"Is this expensive?" Naruto asked, setting the chakra paper down.
"It is," Takuma said plainly, but was suddenly worried that Naruto would reject it because it was too expensive.
Naruto stared at Takuma for a good while as though searching for something before making up his mind and picking up the slip again. "I just put chakra into it?" he asked with seriousness in his eyes.
"Yup," Takuma said.
Naruto's face twisted in focus as he pushed chakra into the paper and then almost immediately jumped in his seat when the paper suddenly split into two from where he was holding it with his index finger and thumb.
"W-What does that mean?" Naruto asked, his hand shaking from nervousness and excitement. The civilian duo cheered, then looked to Takuma for an answer.
Takuma smiled. "That means wind, Naruto. You're best suited for Wind Release. That's a rare element among Hidden Leaf shinobi. Most of your enemies wouldn't be expecting you to attack them with a Wind Release jutsu; you'll have the advantage of the element of surprise. Congratulations."
"Wind," Naruto repeated to himself as though savouring the word.
Takuma turned to Iruka. "How about you give it a try as well?"
"I already know my affinity, and so does Naruto. You should sell this one at half price. I'm sure there'd be people who'd be more than willing to take it off your hands." Iruka pushed the remaining slip towards Takuma, who shook his head.
"No, it's fine. I want you to try it."
Iruka tried to convince him, but Takuma wore him down.
"Why don't you try it?" Iruka made one last push.
"I won one as a reward during basic training. Now, come on; show us," Takuma said, and that did it, as Iruka resigned and finally pushed chakra into the paper, which caused it to smoulder, the faint flame slowly eating away at the paper from the middle.
"Fire, as expected," Iruka said as others oohed and aahed.
"Neat, right? Mine crumbled into dust."
"Naruto, thank Takuma. He just saved you a lot of time," Iruka said to Naruto, who was looking between the two slips, considering which one was cooler and coming to the conclusion that the smouldering paper was more of a spectacle.
"Thank you, Panda Eyes."
"You're welcome, Naruto. And once more, congratulations on your graduation."
.
———
Chat with me and the rest of the community on our DISCORD server.
The link is in the synopsis!