The next morning arrived with a surprising lack of catastrophe, and Naruto found himself appreciating that more than he probably should have.
In just the span of a few days—or even less, he wasn't exactly sure—he had been dropped into an entirely different world, discovered the existence of invisible monsters born from human negativity, met someone strong enough to alter the balance of an entire society simply by existing, learned that fingers of an ancient curse were scattered across the country, and fought a creature capable of manipulating souls.
By all accounts, his life should have continued accelerating from there. Instead, he was standing behind the counter of a ramen shop, listening to someone complain that his egg wasn't centered.
And honestly, it was nice.
“The yolk shifted,” the customer said, pointing accusingly into his bowl.
Naruto leaned over the counter.
It had indeed shifted, though barely.
“You ate half the bowl before noticing.”
“That’s because I was giving it a chance to correct itself.”
Naruto stared at him.
The man stared back.
“…You want another egg?”
“I would like another egg.”
Naruto sighed dramatically and grabbed one from the prepared ingredients. “You’re lucky my wife is watching.”
The customer immediately pointed toward the register. “Your wife is the one who told me to ask.”
Naruto turned.
Hinata smiled sweetly and waved.
Traitor.
The customer looked entirely too pleased with himself as Naruto dropped the replacement egg into the bowl, leaving a few minutes later looking deeply satisfied with both his meal and his victory.
Naruto still wasn’t sure which annoyed him more.
The lunch rush hadn’t started yet, leaving the restaurant pleasantly occupied without becoming crowded. Steam drifted from simmering broth, carrying familiar scents through the air while conversations blended together beneath the occasional clink of bowls and utensils.
Naruto inhaled deeply. Yeah, this was much better.
He turned back toward the kitchen area just in time to see Hinata carrying a crate of vegetables.
“I’ve got that.”
“You said that about the flour yesterday.”
“I did have it.”
“You dropped it.”
Naruto pointed a finger at her. “The floor tripped me.”
Hinata’s expression remained perfectly serious. “Of course.”
“It did,” he whined.
“Naturally.”
“I’m glad you understand.”
She shook her head and carried the crate past him.
Naruto followed anyway.
Together they began preparing ingredients for the afternoon crowd. Naruto handled vegetables while Hinata organized supplies and checked inventory. It wasn’t exciting work, and it definitely wasn't glamorous, but he found himself enjoying every second of it.
Twelve-year-old Naruto would’ve climbed onto the roof by now, probably while yelling about how he was gonna be hokage someday.
The thought made him snort.
“What’s funny?” Hinata asked.
“Nothing,” he said.
The look she gave him made it clear she did not believe that for a second.
Naruto grinned. “Just thinking.”
“About?”
“How twelve-year-old me would’ve hated this.”
“He would’ve lasted ten minutes.”
“Five.”
“Three.”
Naruto clutched his chest. “You have no faith in me.”
“I’ve met you.”
A devastating argument.
Naruto couldn’t even disagree.
“Which is why I'm very lucky.”
The faint pink that appeared on her cheeks remained one of his favorite things in existence.
Some achievements never got old.
Hinata shook her head, though the corner of her mouth curved upward. “You say things like that so casually.”
“Because they’re true.”
She rolled her eyes, and Naruto considered that another victory.
For a while, they worked in comfortable silence while customers came and went. A pair of students argued over whose turn it was to pay, an older couple shared a bowl despite ordering two, and one man insisted he wasn’t hungry before immediately ordering a second serving.
Some things really never changed, no matter the world and no matter the circumstances. Life had a stubborn habit of just moving: people laughed, complained, ate, and lived. It was ordinary, and Naruto found himself watching the customers for a moment. Though a part of him remained aware of the larger problems.
Sukuna’s fingers were still out there. The jujutsu world still had issues that stretched far beyond anything he currently understood. And there were almost certainly more curses like Mahito lurking somewhere.
Those problems had not disappeared simply because he was chopping vegetables. But they could wait, at least for a little while.
Naruto had spent enough of his life treating every problem as something that needed immediate action, but experience had taught him that rushing into things rarely produced the best results.
Besides, there were more important matters demanding his attention.
His gaze drifted toward Hinata again.
She was reorganizing ingredients on the kitchen counter with the same focus she brought to everything she did. The sight softened something in his chest.
Then, his attention drifted lower for a moment. One hand rested unconsciously against her stomach.
Soon there would be three of them.
The thought still felt strange sometimes. Wonderful, terrifying, and exciting all at once. A child—their child—growing up in a world neither of them truly understood yet.
Hinata caught him staring. Her eyebrow rose, and Naruto immediately looked away, red dusting his cheeks. A second later, he heard her muffled laughter.
The traitor.
Still smiling to himself, he crossed the kitchen in two steps and rested a hand over hers. For a moment, neither of them spoke. They didn’t really need to.
The future was uncertain, the world was still strange, and there were dangers waiting somewhere beyond the walls of their restaurant. But for the moment, none of that mattered. The broth was coming along perfectly, one customer was asking for a second bowl despite insisting ten minutes ago that he wasn’t hungry, and Hinata was smiling at him.
As far as Naruto Uzumaki was concerned, that was enough.