Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Mission: Drabbles ❯ Nano-Ramen ( Chapter 1 )

Sasuke was surprised when his co-worker's coat was missing from the semi-sterile room that morning, even more surprised when he recognized the hideously damaged and taped up old, orange school bag kicked underneath a bench. Had Naruto stayed at the lab all night? He hurried through his cleansing preparations and took a deep breath as the three layers of automatic doors whooshed open in front of him. Sure enough, the familiar mop of blond hair was perking up from the other side of the most comfortable chair in the room, a special order in celebration of a breakthrough some months ago.

 

He sighed heavily and dropped into the partner of that cushiony chair, soft black suede and mesh with both warming and massaging abilities. Sasuke was quiet for several minutes while he observed Naruto from across their double man desk.

 

The blond had his feet propped up on the desk crossed at the ankles, accentuating the poof of paper-cloth booties they were forced to wear. His clothes were disheveled and his mouth open just the smallest bit as he peacefully drooled onto his shoulder.

 

Sasuke took a picture and sent it to his home laptop via cellphone before taking any further action. As he stood to wake his friend in the best way he knew how a blinking light caught his attention. Someone (Naruto) had been messing with the photography equipment. A small pile of pictures laid beside the very expensive taker of micro-objects. After looking at the content of the images he almost swore and took the few steps over to the humongous microscope that shared table space with its dedicated camera. A familiar dish denoting carbon material was still loaded under the lens, and the auto focus was set for Naruto's eyes. Two quick button presses on the touchscreen and Sasuke was removing his glasses to glance at the dish and its contents.

 

Naruto woke to a loud huffing that might have been laughter or amused frustration. He snorted in waking and shook his head lazily in an attempt to find a more comfortable position for his cramping neck. Seconds later his feet were flung off the desk and Sasuke had grabbed his collar.

 

“You idiot! What is this?” A thin picture was shoved into his face. “Is this what I think it is?”

 

“Uh, hehe, Sasuke…” Naruto hastly grabbed at a nearby wrist for support. “You found my surprise,” he questioned meekly still half asleep.

 

“Surprise?”

 

After a portion of a second as small as the nanos they worked with, Naruto was awake and yammering. He grabbed a sheet torn from the fax machine and waved it at Sasuke.

 

“A contest, a contest! A micro-photography contest! It's an entry, aren't the pictures great?” The crazy scientist jumped up and ran to the microscope. `Wasn't it perfect, it's going to win us the grand prize for sure. Who could resist it?”

 

Sasuke could only blink in silence. He watched as Naruto changed the focusing feature on the microscope and peered in talking all the while.

 

“I checked online about the previous winners and their things were all boring, embryos and bacteria and stuff, but this is technology at its finest, the creation of tiny art, not just photographing tiny things that occur in nature.”

 

“Naruto…”

 

“It was sorta hard finishing the details. I wanted to add more, make it easier to recognize, but the noodles were hard enough to get laying down instead of standing straight up. We need ot figure out some color filters for this thing. How can we have a camera with a half a million price tag and no color photo abilities. It doesn't make sense, does it, Sasuke?”

 

“Naruto…”

 

“You didn't happen to bring donuts, did you?”

 

“You spent the entire night awake writing code to make this… this…”

 

“It's Ramen!”

 

“You made ramen.”

 

“It's microscopic ramen!”

 

Sasuke once more looked at the image of the tiny bowl with shards of noodles that he held crumpled in his hand. “Misuse of company equipment,” he started.

 

“But it will win, I'm sure of it,” Naruto pleaded.

 

“You can't bill the time you spent making it.”

 

“Did you see the first prize? We could afford a vacation? We could go to a hot spring!”

 

Sasuke sat down in his chair and held his head in his hands. “Don't partner up with him, they all told me.”

 

“Who told you that?”

 

“He's a moron with a one track mind. That phrase was said repeatedly,” he flung at his partner.

 

“Didn't I tell you to stop calling me a moron!”

 

“You made a microscopic ramen bowl complete with noodles, how much more moronic can you get?” Sasuke looked again at the picture and began to feel rare feelings of humor bubbling up inside.

 

“Give me a few more days,” his partner pleaded as he sat down in his own chair and lifted the screen of his laptop to reveal a program window full of code. “I can add the designs on the side of the bowl, and even some fishcake.” Naruto stopped talking when he heard an unfamiliar noise erupt from Sasuke. “Are you, are you laughing?”

 

A suddenly serious face looked at him with piercing eyes. “You are a moron.”

 

Naruto's dumbfounded response was the rumbling of his stomach. He had the temerity to blush in embarrassment. “Could we continue the argument over breakfast,' he pleaded rubbing his belly. “I kinda skipped midnight snack last night.” He stood and made his way to the sliding doors. “I wonder if the lunch cart is already out, I'm feeling like some curry and rice today, or maybe pancakes.”

 

“No ramen,” his helpless partner asked while standing to follow.

 

“ I was working on that thing all night,” Naruto sighed. “There are limits to my obsession.”

 

“Really,” Sasuke deadpanned. “Limits.”

 

He looked back at the image lying on his desk.

 

“Idiot.”

 

A/N: Just read the link XD You'll understand… It's to a Yahoo news blurb, so no fear...

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080529/ap_on_sc/odd_japan_smallest_r amen_bowl;_ylt=ApO2P1BOdVpl8qUoeES4tdes0NUE