chapter 152
"Oh yeah, I think I remember something about that," said Kizu, "The Akimichi clan use jutsu that take advantage of their size. And…something about converting fat into chakra?"
"Yeah…I'm not fat though. I'm just a little pudgy." Naruto leaned back a little as a dangerous glint entered Chou's eye for a moment. "But yeah, it was originally a technique, but since we're eating a lot of food anyway, there's no reason not to enjoy it."
"You seem to take a special excessive love for it however, there are limits to simply eating a lot because you can you know…" Shina muttered.
Naruto decided to intervene before the two went off into another set of friendly jabs at one another. "S-so, how do you two know each other?"
Shina just gave him a sidelong look. "Chouhime always got picked on when we were kids for eating a lot. I thought that was dumb, so I let her watch clouds with me. 'Cause of that, she keeps trying to force-feed me obscene amounts of food. That's pretty much it."
"Mou, don't leave out so much, Shina-chan!" protested the thick ginger, she turned to Naruto, "Well, it's basically that, a cliffnotes version really. But it was a lot more as well. We first met like that, I ran away from the kids making fun of me, and then I tripped over Shina, and we did what she said. Then, we'd talk, I'd say something about the bullies, and she would make a very smart observation about why they tease me, to the point where it made me feel bad about them. Then, we started hanging out, I'd follow her, then I'd lead her somewhere else, before long, we managed to find a bunch of things we liked, most we didn't share…but that didn't bother us. And that's how I became friends with Shina-chan." Chou finished, smiling brightly. "She's real grumpy and sleepy, but she goes along with whatever happens and is really smart! She relies on me to do stuff that she's too lazy to do herself."
"Oi."
"See? She can't even put any passion into that retort."
"And what are you like?" asked Naruto.
Chouhime blinked. "Eh?"
"What about you? You haven't said much about yourself," he pointed out reasonably.
"U-um…" the hefty girl fidgeted in her seat, looking cutely flustered. "W-well…y-you know that I love eating, right?"
"Kinda hard to miss," Naruto agreed dryly.
"R-right, of course…"
"She's really cheerful," said Shina, watching them from where she'd buried her head in her arms, "And overbearingly friendly. She shares with people that she likes. Also, anyone who makes fun of her is gonna get stomped flat. She's annoyingly outgoing and pushy…and yes, she eats too much."
For a moment, the table was stunned silent, Chou especially as they stared at the normally silent and disinterested Nara, having just spoke with complete frankness about her friend.
Chou immediately snapped out of it and flushed, smiling like normal, "H-Heh, yeah, it's makes sense since I talked about Shina-chan, that she would do the same for me, heh…"
"You're just that bothersome, you always seem to need to include me in everything." Shina said. She lifted her head as suddenly, a plate with a piece of white toast was placed in front of her.
"Here you go," said their waitress, depositing a large platter of sliced meat on their table, "Enjoy your grilling!"
"Yes!" said Chouhime blissfully, grabbing a pair of tongs and placing pieces of chicken on the grill.
Naruto glanced at Kizu, and they both chuckled ruefully as they started cooking the beef they'd ordered.
GoF
It took them quite a while to work through all the food. Or rather, the blond boy got full pretty quickly, but Chouhime insisted on finishing everything and not taking it home. Thus, his stomach was hurting as they finally left the place. He was walking back to his house alone, but then…
"Hey." He turned to see Shina regarding him, hands in her pockets. "Thanks for making Chou-chan feel happy."
…Nothing else was said, and she began walking away…
"Wait, you're not going to add something onto that?!" Naruto snapped, the girl's out of place words and sudden dismissal of Naruto immediately afterwards was his breaking point.