"All right, all right. You're the big bro, happy?" Xin waved dismissively, chuckling. Teuchi gave him a sharp glare but didn't respond.
"Where are your friends? They haven't been around for ramen in a while," Teuchi asked while preparing the order.
"Minato and Nawaki went off to the frontlines, Mikoto's tied up with the police force, and Kushina... well, who knows where she's gone. Just me tonight," Xin explained, accepting a small side dish Teuchi added as a courtesy.
Whenever a regular dropped by, Teuchi always threw in a little something extra.
Before long, the ramen was ready, and Xin dug into his two bowls of veggie ramen, savoring each bite.
Teuchi watched with mild amusement as Xin ate, shaking his head. He much preferred Minato's approach-Minato always clasped his hands together and said, "I'm about to dig in!" with such sincerity.
Xin clearly hadn't picked up that habit.
Teuchi was destined to be disappointed once again.
"Lately, there's been a lot of rowdy drinkers causing trouble in this area. Tomorrow's patrol will need to focus more on keeping things under control. We can't let things get out of hand, especially during wartime-spies might take advantage of it."
Xin heard the conversation drifting closer, and when the ramen shop curtain was pulled aside, he looked up.
Both he and the person who had just walked in froze.
"Well, what a coincidence," Uchiha Fugaku said, his stern face softening into a faint smile as he greeted Xin with a polite nod.
What Fugaku didn't know was that when his face was set in a stern expression, he actually looked somewhat dignified.
But when he smiled... Xin immediately felt a chill run down his spine.
Some people just weren't made to smile. For Fugaku, smiling made him look worse, much worse.
When he had a serious expression, it only made him seem strict. But when he smiled, it was the kind of smile that made you want to reach out and pull his face tight again, smoothing it out as quickly as possible.
"Yeah, quite the coincidence," Xin replied, eyeing him. After a moment of hesitation, he couldn't help but blurt out, "Has anyone ever told you that your smile's kind of... scary?"
Cough! Cough!
Fugaku had come in for a bowl of ramen after work, hoping to fill his empty stomach. He hadn't expected to run into Xin here, since the young jonin rarely visited the ramen shop. Still hoping to curry favor with Xin, Fugaku had offered a polite smile and greeting. What he hadn't anticipated was Xin's... blunt honesty.