Maybe a bowl of ramen can help Naruto...

Before Naruto could continue his search, his stomach growled, demanding to be fed. For our blonde ninja, there was only one place to go: Ichiraku Ramen! He knew the way so well, he could navigate there in his sleep, and soon, Naruto stepped into the store.

There, he saw the owner and cook, the old Teuchi, sitting at the opposite site of the bar... where he shouldn't be. "Oh? Old man, you're not cooking today?", Naruto wondered.

The man turned around and greeted Naruto. As he did that, Naruto noticed that one of his hands was bandaged. "Ah, hello Naruto. No, I burnt my hand recently... don't worry, I'll be back in shape in a day or two. Ayame is more than able to stand in for me, though.", he said with a nod to the young, brown-haired woman on the other side of the counter.

That woman turned around and saw Naruto sitting there. Her face lit up with a smile. "Yup, sure am. Hiya, Naruto. Same as usual?", Ayane asked sweetly. Naruto gave his patented grin in return. "Yeah, please, Ayame-chan.", he answered, and Ayame smiled even wider.

The two men sat and talked a bit as Ayame was busy preparing Narutos usual three bowls of ramen. "Ayame has grown so much...", Teuchi said, sounding nostalgic and somewhat sad. Of course, that was nothing new to Naruto. He had too had seen Ayame grow up, seeing as she was only two years older than him... seeing her smile was always part of the pleasure in coming to this place, he realized that when she was on a vacation once. It just wasn't quite the same.

Then, Ayame served Naruto his three bowls of ramen, and returned to serving the other customers. Teuchi looked at her, and then at Naruto. "She is ready to take over my shop, and I could retire soon... but you know, as a father, I'm concerned over my little girl. That she will be happy, and live a good life... things like that.", he said.

Still, Naruto remained silent. For one, he didn't know what to say, and then he wondered what old man Teuchi was getting at. "Say... wouldn't you want to marry my daughter, Naruto?", the ramen store owner asked him after another break.

Naruto choked on his ramen so hard that he feared that some noodles would come back out through his nose. "C-Come again...?", he sputtered out.

"You're a nice guy, Naruto. You've been here nearly all your life, and I know you pretty well... and you know us well. Seriously, I am aware that you would make a perfect husband, and quite frankly, there's no one else that I'd want to see holding the hand of my daughter. Of course, if you don't feel ready for it or you don't want her, I can perfectly understand this...", Teuchi said.

Of course, this was perfect... she could cook, was a nice girl, and had a stunning body under her apron to top it off. Naruto couldn't agree quicker. "I would... love to marry your daughter, old man. But... shouldn't we... I mean, I... ask Ayame about that first?", he asked... although, per the orders of the Hokage, the women had basically ****, but that was not what Naruto wanted...

"I'm pretty sure she'd be okay with it... I happen to know that she is quite fond of you, too. But you're right.", Teuchi admitted, secretly happy that Naruto opted for this. It only proved his impression of him right. "Hey, Ayame, come over here for a second.", he called her over.

Ayama wiped a bit of her sweat off of her forehead as she joined the two men. "Naruto here has something to ask you...", Teuchi said, forcing Naruto to make his move.

Naruto of course was now under a bit of pressure as Ayame looked at him, smiling but also curious as to what he wanted to ask her. "Ah, you see... I was told that I need to built my own clan, and for that... well... would you like to marry me, Ayame-chan?", he finally asked her.

Ayame was visibly taken aback by that sudden proposal. But she soon regained her warm smile. "Sure I do.", she accepted him. Naruto was a bit surprised by that... it seemed like Teuchi had been right, and she had harbored feelings for him too...

Naruto held his hand forward and Ayame took it, and they moved closer to each other. "I'll make ramen for you whenever you want, Naruto-kun.", she promised him. "That won't be the only thing I could want from you... Ayame-chan.", he said as he moved his head closer.

However, before their lips touched, they realized that her father was still there. And even if he was okay with it, both deemed it to be somewhat awkward to share their first kiss in his presence. "Well... I'll go and talk to the Hokage about you two.", Teuchi said, interpreting their stares correctly and went off.

The couple turned to each other again and smiled. The awkward moment had passed and they locked their eyes again... and they could both see a longing for the other in them. And so, Ayame and Naruto shared their first kiss. His lips tasted like ramen, unsurprisingly. Her lips tasted not like ramen, surprisingly, but peachy... a taste that Naruto could easily get used to.

After a brief kiss though, a new customer entered the shop, and Ayame had to serve him. But she didn't break the kiss before winking at Naruto and saying "We can continue this later on, Naruto-kun... don't forget to eat your ramen, it's getting cold.".

Naruto knew this was true, and turned to eat his ramen... but he couldn't quite focus on that, because he and Ayame continued to steal glances at each other, even when she was taking other customers orders... oh yes, he definitely made a good choice with her, Naruto decided.

After about thirty minutes, Naruto had devoured his ramen, and left the shop after paying, but not before receiving a blown kiss from Ayame, which he returned with a real kiss of his own as he got behind the counter and kissed her in front of all the customers, eliciting some applause and laughter from them, and a deep blush on Ayames face... as well as a dreamy stare.

But eventually, he did leave the store... he couldn't keep his future wife from working after all...

Looking back, the list of Narutos future wives already read like a list of who's-who of Konohas most desired single women: Sakura, Ino, Tayuya, Hinata and now Ayame... five women already, and Naruto was still not feeling like that was it already... he could think of one or two girls that he could ask....