"Teuchi-ossan!"
"Yo, Naruto." The old ramen chef looked up from polishing a ladle, a smile breaking across his face as he spotted the familiar blond boy. Seeing the group of kids gathered beside him, he chuckled. "Brought some friends today, huh? What'll it be? It's on the house."
Naruto waved his hands hastily. "No way! I've got a bunch of friends with me today—you'd go broke feeding us all!"
Teuchi threw back his head and laughed heartily. "Don't worry about it. Think of it as a gift to celebrate you starting school."
Naruto scratched his head, puzzled. "But… how'd you even know I started school? I haven't told you yet."
"Let's just say I've got my ways," Teuchi said with a wink. Setting his ladle aside, he nodded toward the wall. "Menu's right there—order whatever you want."
"Okay, then I'll have a large miso ramen!" Naruto declared, turning to the others expectantly.
"I'll take char siu ramen. Extra spicy," said Seimi.
"I'll have two bowls of tonkotsu!" Choji chimed in.
…
Before long, Naruto's miso ramen arrived, steaming and fragrant.
He clasped his hands together. "I'm digging in!"
Just then, the kitchen curtain lifted—and a wave of scorching heat and chili fumes rushed out, making Naruto cough and nearly spew his noodles.
Teuchi placed a bowl of crimson noodles before Seimi, the broth gleaming red like molten lava, and then returned to the kitchen.
Seimi slid his chopsticks in and stirred. When he lifted them again, every strand was coated in a glossy layer of red.
Naruto stared at the bowl—it did look kind of delicious—but the fiery aroma stabbed at his sinuses. That's gotta be lethal!
By the time Naruto finished his entire bowl, Seimi had only eaten half.
His lips were bright red, and beads of sweat dotted his forehead and nose, but he still ate slowly, savoring every bite as if it were an art form.
Watching him, Naruto shivered. "Seimi, with that much chili—won't your stomach explode later?"
Seimi shook his head. "I didn't start out eating this spicy. You just build it up bit by bit. Now, this is nothing."
The air was still thick with chili oil. Even full, Naruto found himself swallowing hard.
Then he shook his head quickly. "Nope! If I take even one bite, I'll explode for sure!"
Trying to distract himself, he glanced around.
Choji already had two empty bowls stacked beside him and was halfway through his third. Kiba alternated between feeding himself and giving Akamaru a bite. Shikamaru had finished his and was now napping on the table.
Naruto sighed. "Compared to them, I guess this 'fox demon' looks like the normal one."
Teuchi laughed warmly. "Naruto, your friends sure have personality."
Naruto didn't reply right away. He turned to look out at the people walking past the shop.
"Sometimes… I wonder if I should try harder to be normal," he said softly. "Then maybe they wouldn't call me the Nine-Tails anymore… maybe they'd want to be my friends."
Teuchi came around from behind the counter and patted his hair. "Naruto, you already have some pretty great friends, don't you?"
"Thanks for the meal."
Seimi's voice came from beside them. His face was flushed red from the spice as he wiped the oil from his lips, then hurried outside.
A few minutes later, he came back holding a glass of milk, gulped it down in one breath, and leaned against the counter, breathing heavily. "Haa… haa…"
Naruto gaped. "Hey! Didn't you just prove you can't handle that level of spice?!"
Seimi wagged his finger. "Naruto, if one day in the future you see someone who can't eat spicy food but insists on eating it anyway—who will you think of?"
"Of course I'd think of you!" Naruto said without hesitation.
"Exactly." Seimi smiled. "Just like how people think of you when they hear 'Nine-Tails.' Being a bit weird—that's your thing. Choji always has snacks on him, Shikamaru's always sleeping, Sasuke's always pretending to be cool… and me? I'm the idiot who eats too much chili."
He laughed, and Naruto couldn't help but smile too.
"So when people call you 'Nine-Tails' again," Seimi continued, "maybe it won't sting so much."
Naruto thought about it. "Huh… that actually makes sense."
"You want to be Hokage, right?" Seimi asked.
"Yeah!" Naruto nodded firmly.
Seimi pointed up toward the Hokage Rock. "Then do you know who they were?"
Naruto thought for a while, then shook his head. "I just know they were amazing people."
Seimi burst out laughing. "They were amazing—but beyond that, they were still people."
"For example, the First Hokage loved gambling—but he always lost. Lady Mito used to drag him out of the casino herself."
"The Second Hokage was obsessed with experimenting on jutsu. There's even a saying—'If some unknown forbidden technique suddenly appears in the world, it's probably Tobirama's fault.'"
"And the Third Hokage—everyone knows him as kind and dignified, but you'd never guess that when he was younger, he used to sneak off with his students to peep at the women's bathhouse~"
Naruto jumped out of his chair. "No way! How do you even know that?!"
Seimi tapped his temple. "I read a lot. Especially random books. You'd be surprised what kind of fun stories you find in those."
Choji finished his battle against the last bowl, stretched, and said, "Actually, I've heard the same thing! My uncles were talking about it once—they said the Third really did get caught peeking back in the day."
Naruto's curiosity was fully piqued now. "Then what about the Fourth Hokage? Did he have some weird hobby too?"
Seimi just smiled and didn't answer. Instead, he waved goodbye to Teuchi and walked out.
When they reached the school's outer wall, Seimi stopped and looked up at the faces carved into the rock.
"Since you're so interested in the Fourth," he said, turning to Naruto, "why not find out for yourself?"
"You can read books, ask your teachers, or talk to the old folks in the village. You can learn a lot about a person from their story."
Then he met Naruto's bright blue eyes and said seriously,
"You want to be Hokage, right? But if you don't even understand the ones who came before you—how can you ever become one?"