Venturing Beyond

Acnologia watched from the edge of the cliff as Naruto walked along the path leading from his home in the mountains. He had never left the sanctity of his mountainous home due to the fact he was too young to be able to take care of himself, but with him now being six, Acnologia thought it was time Naruto experienced a bit of the outside world. Besides, the boy would also gain some experience in learning about his species, eat some human food rather than just the deer and rabbits the dragon would often kill.

Naruto was currently dressed in a pair of white shorts that Acnologia "borrowed" from a travelling hiker's son after killing both the hiker and the son and eating them for his lunch. He wore no shirt and thus it displayed his healthy body showing that Acnologia kept the blonde well fed. He wore no form of footwear either and so Naruto's bare feet were constantly abused by the small, sharp stones he had unfortunately stepped upon.

Acnologia chuckled at his dragonslayer as the boy hopped around on his feet to rid them of the sharp objects. It would help if the boy would be able to buy some new clothes along with the food and experience, as getting some human clothes to protect him from the elements that would come with the later months would allow Acnologia would finally be able to sleep during the winter months without having the gaki snuggle up to him like the baby he used to be. The boy was a dragonslayer...dragonslayers do NOT snuggle. The dragonslayer of the Dragon of the Apocalypse, especially.

The black scaled reptile growled in thought as he looked in direction of where he had buried the biological parents of his son.

"I wonder how he would have turned out if I didn't kill his parents?"

........

Clover Town-Fiore

After the trek down the mountains as well a half an hour walk along the path through the forest at the base of the mountains coupled with following the path that towards the town, Naruto was feeling rather thirsty. He stopped in front of a sign before him and looked up at the wooden structure.

"Clover Town" the boy read. He observed the scene before him. Clover was a relatively large town with many trees in the area which surrounded large houses, not that Naruto had ever seen a house, but he was taught about things below the mountains.

'Houses...things made of a yucky, grey thing called cement, along with brick and stone. Humans live in them' Naruto remembered his variation of Acnologia's definition. Acnologia's definition had a few big words in them, infrastructure and substance being two of them, that Naruto was too lazy to try and sound out as they were too much for his six year old brain to handle. Naruto observed the town and saw the houses were all made with the same design. Victorian houses all painted with cream colored walls, large, glass windows and brown tile roofs.

Naruto gulped as he saw the other humans. He saw many of them were wearing nice looking clothes before looking over his own and frowned, he should really get some clothes. Naruto shook his head and steeled his nerves as he got rid of his anxiety.

'I'm the son of the god damn Dragon of the Apocalypse. I can't be scared of seeing a new place' Naruto thought before entering the town. The blonde walked along the road, ignoring the odd looks the adults were giving him due to his lack of clothing. Naruto paused as his enhanced senses came into play. A delicious aroma entered his nasal caverns leading him to the window of a small shop.

The shop was of the same design as the houses, only it was a brick-red colour. It measured up to be about the size of a small tree and there was a large brown door next to the window. On the window was a colourful image of a bowl filled with noodles and a pair of chopsticks in the bowl. Above the bowl was the name of the shop.

"Hmmm, Teuichiiii's..Raaaaameeeen" Naruto drawled out the words before shrugging. It smelled good, so he decided to enter the place. He looked around and saw there were a good few people in the shop eating the bowl filled with the succulent noodles. Naruto's sense of smell felt like it died and went to heaven. The dragonslayer looked around and saw an empty chair before climbing atop it and sitting in the chair. His feet dangling in the air.

Naruto spotted an old man cooking some of the noodles which he assumed must have been the ramen. Naruto's stomach growled causing him to release his own growl.

"Pipe down will ya, I'll get you your food" Naruto told his stomach. A giggle met Naruto's ears and the boy looked up to see a girl who looked to be around thirteen years old with a slightly tanned complexion. She had chocolate brown eyes and had brown hair tied up into a pony tail by a blue ribbon. She wore a cream coloured dress and a dark blue apron with the image of the shop on the front.

"You seem hungry" the girl giggled causing Naruto to scowl, blushing slightly in embarrassment.

"Maybe" he replied, "So what do you guys serve here?"

"I'm guessing you're new in town and judging from your lack of clothing you haven't lived in populated areas" the girl said. Naruto blinked.

"What does populated mean?" he asked. The girl giggled once more causing Naruto to scowl once more. "What's so funny?"

"Now, now...no need to get cranky. I'll get your food, Mr. Grouchy" Naruto pouted at the nickname the girl gave him and folded his arms.

"I'm not grouchy..." his stomach roared, "I'm just hungry" The girl giggled again before walking over to the old man, well old from Naruto's Point of view, and it was then that Naruto noticed the slight resemblance between them, thus showing that they were probably related. The girl then smiled at the old man as he handed her a bowl of the steaming noodles. The girl rested the bowl in front of the blonde boy and handed him a pair of chopsticks.

"Here you go" she said. Naruto nodded in thanks. Acnologia had always told him that females, no matter what the species, expected males to be polite. Human females tended to be the most violent when not shown the proper courtesy and Naruto never chose to ignore the words of his reptilian parent. Naruto looked at the chopsticks in his hands before noticing they seemed to split. He then gave them a small pull and they snapped apart causing his eyes widen.

"AGH, gomen...I didn't mean to break them!" he exclaimed. The girl giggled before shaking her head.

"No baka, the chopsticks are meant to be broken. Look..." she took the sticks from him and positioned them in her right hand. The left chopstick was positioned between her index finger and thumb while the other stick was held between her middle finger and index finger. She then picked up a few noodles, blew on them so that they would cool before holding them up in front of Naruto's mouth.

"Say 'Ahhhh'" Naruto looked at her with a 'Are you kidding me?' look. He was the son of a frickin' dragon, he wouldn't dare take orders from this...this...female. His dragon pride keeping him from denying what his stomach truly wanted. Naruto turned his head.

"I'm ain't takin' no food from strangers" Naruto said. The girl's eyes narrowed at the little boy before she raised her other arm and flicked the boy's forehead. Naruto tuned back and opened his mouth to yell out and ask as to why she did that, only to suddenly have ramen noodles enter his mouth. Naruto instinctively swallowed and the food became a bolus before traveling down his esophagus. Naruto froze at that. The brown haired girl smirked in triumph and her smirk became a smile when she saw the look on his face. Pure disbelief.

"This...is the best thing...I have ever eaten in my entire life" he looked at the girl. "What is this stuff again?"

"Ramen"

"Ramen...the food of the gods!" Naruto cried anime tears and he grabbed the chopsticks from the girl and managed to hold them in a similar way to how the girl was holding them and began to shovel the noodles and other seasonings and added pieces of pork and chicken. Naruto then tilted the bowl to his lips and drank the broth before releasing a sigh of content.

"That was good" the girl could only gape in shock at the speed at which he had just downed the bowl. The blonde looked at the ramen chef and hailed him out. "OI JI-CHAN, ANOTHER BOWL OVER HERE!"

.....

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