A Bowl to Go (open)

[NATSU ZANZOU]

Exhaling a breath full of scented smoke, Zanzou smiled at the girl. "The name's Zanzou, though I doubt you've heard of me," said the man. Seeing that his bowl of ramen was placed in front of him, Zanzou thanked Ayame. Turning back to the two teens beside him, Zanzou raised an eyebrow. "Maa... are you two on a date?" asked the man with a teasing grin.

[NEJI]

It had been a long day at work and Neji was finally able to sit down, have a nice hot meal and enjoy some quiet. It wasn't that Neji was particularly exhausted or anything nor was he one to complain about missions, the complete opposite in fact. However, he was content to sit about for a while. He had done a lot for the day. He did two B missions in one day, and one C rank. One of the B rank missions wasn't even supposed to be assigned to him but the ninja assigned to the mission called in sick at the last moment so Neji volunteered. Someone had to get the job done after all, and it may as well be him.

However, Neji should have realized that this wouldn't be a quiet place to eat. This was a favorite haunt of Naruto's after all. He didn't mind though, he was used to that kind of noise. In a way he was comfortable with it. Throughout the years of working with Lee and Gai, he was accustomed to loud outbursts. Though he did love them like family, he often would get exhausted by their craziness and gung ho attitude. Naruto wasn't like that...not as much anyways and at the moment Naruto was using his inside voice.

He took the seat where Shikamaru once sat and told Ayame his meal order. He looked both at Zanzou and Ren for a moment. He did not recognize the two. True, Neji wasn't the most sociable of guys but he usually vaguely recognized people as he walked about. He was also able see virtually the whole village at once with his byakugan as well so on occasion and has seen mostly everyone at once at one point or another. Maybe the two just weren't that memorable at the time? Or maybe they changed in style? Or maybe he just wasn't that observant because there was no point in it at the time? Whatever, he thought to himself. Chances were that because he was sitting there, they'd eventually meet officially. "Hello Naruto. How are you today?" he asked politely as he waited for his food.

[NARUTO UZUMAKI]

Zanzou's sudden question caused Naruto to go wide eyed now coughing lightly a few times. "Eh oh nothing like that we just met," Naruto replied. Naruto smiled sheepishly waving his arms now. He had only just met Ren so it was too early to say he liked her like that. he then felt someone sit down near him and looked over to see Neji there. "Oh hey Neji what's up? Oh not much just hanging out with new friends. This is Ren Yajuu and this guy is Zanzou!" He grinned sheepishly crossing his arms behind his head now. Neji must've had time off and decided to eat lunch here. He should've figured Neji would've known he was here not because of his Byakugan but because everyone knew it was his favorite place to eat. Everyone knew how much he loved to eat ramen since that was what he ate ninety percent of the time.