"Ramen, Ramen, Ramen, at heshi its the best!"

This would become an amusing history for the others: Jounin lost to academy student. At least that`s the history that would be passed around, the deeper details to the story being removed for the sake of entertainment. I hope it dosen`t go to his head, it could make him overconfident and reckless. Lowering her shoulders, she settled her eyes on the swaying white ponytail lightly flowing over Daiku`s growing shoulders. The bet had been quite simple. If he did his homework without complains for 2 weeks, he would get to chose a place where they could eat. Of cause the choice had been "Heshi`s ramen", a decent sized ramen shop not far away from home. Ever since Daiku`s first taste of the ramen 4 years ago, a reward given for cleaning up his toys, the shop had been his vision of "perfect meal". The ironic truth was, that most customers at Heshi`s was around her own age, if not older. It did have a small kids menu, even a small playground, but its theme was not directly intended for children, which made it the third or fourth choice when families chose eating spots.

"Onii-chan, its embarrassing!"

A soft hand tugged her own slender fingers tightly, and a single purple eye looked up at her, black hair covering the other.

"Okaa-san, tell him to stop!"

Holding a small laughter back, she put up a smile to calm his rising anger. It was quite amusing to see the 6 year old, be embarrassed over the behavior of his 9 year old brother. With her left hand tightly sealed between his fingers, she used the right hand to stroke him over the hair. Sharing a few traits, parents, nose and eye color...that was the only thing her sons had in common. Daiku had always played the older sibling part great, but as he grew older, he would oftenly get himself into trouble or play pranks on others. Feeling overshadowed by his brother sometimes, Hei was more withdrawn. Now that Daiku had started in the academy, Hei would often spend his day tugging her hand tightly. She had tried to encourage play-time with kids on his own age, but mostly he refused, often dragging himself into the books when she was working.

"Remember how you jumped up and down when oto-san brought you that book about ninjutsu? You didn`t care what other thought of it, because you were so happy". She jerked her head forwards, making Hei aware of how blissfull Daiku really looked. "Only bullies spoil the fun, so lets have a good time. Maybe there´s ice cream for dessert afterwards?". With "magical" word spoken, she watched as Hei`s one visible eye opened fully up. With his "addiction" to the cold substance, it was what always could make him happy. A sudden tugging in her right sleeve returned her focus to reality.

"Neh, lets go in already! Im hungry!". With a spin on the heel, he locked his slightly larger hand around Hei`s free arm, dragging him in through the sliding doors before any protests could be heart.

"Its amazing how you can control the young minds, Heishi". Glancing at the shop name displayed on a glittering yellow sign, she followed Daiku and his "hostage" into the restaurant. After 3 steps, the familiar scent of fresh made ramen and sake hit her nose. The faint scent of sake was to weak for her children to smell, but for Junko, it was quite noticeable. "Heishi`s Ramen", was a basic structured 1 floor eating place. To the left, several black sofa`s was aligned around a four or six man table. At the right, the most used of the place, basic black tables and brown chairs was placed in a half moon shape, giving the waiters plenty of room to serve. The bar area took up most of the northern wall, the hard working cooks being shielded from view by a long row of different sake bottles, all neatly placed on black shelves. Nestled in one of the corners, was the marked playground. 2 slides, a small castle to climb around in and a ball cage with room for 10 children.

"Whats your orders, young gentlemen?". Bowing slightly down from her mere height of 5.2, she put up a humble tone to imitate a waitress.

Of cause Daiku was the first one to shout out his usual order. "Spicy meat ball special!"

"Uhmm...a shrimp ramen like last time..".

"You two sure are hungry it seems..Anyways. You two go over and play a little, ill call when the food is here". With a raised index finger, she briefly scanned the black sofa`s for free space. Seeing a free table with decent view to the playground, she settled the finger on that. "That table, with the red candle on it. Come to me if anything happens". Before she had time to lower the hand, two pair of arms wrapped around her waist.

"We will, we will!". Daiku, once again grasping hei`s arm, released the hug and hurried to the playground. Having spotted 3 other children there, suggestions to games had begun to form in his head.

With the kids released into the playground, Junko settled down in the chosen spot for their upcoming dinner. With the use of both arms, she moved most of her knee long hair to hang down the left side of the sofa, through leaving a portion of it on the right side. While its length could be a bother in the morning, but she was proud to have it. A bet about growing it, had after all given her a loving husband and sons. With the laughter of her sons and the 3 other kids faintly sounding in the bagground, she began to settle the focus on whatever caught her eye. Looking over it, Heishi was quite empty at the moment. Most of the customers arrived later in the evening, and the few people present besides herself was the parents of the other 3 kids, and the occasional person sitting alone with their sake in the bar. These are to comfy for them to be healthy.... Junko rubbed the back of her hand over her purple eyes, which were a shade stronger purple than Hei`s. Wearing sneakers, long pants and a V cut tank top was neither to warm or cold, and combined the softness of the sofa, it was hard to keep the eyes from closing.

"Ah, Kouseki-san, good to see you again. Whats the order for Daiku-san and Hei-san tonight?"

"Moki-san right? You served us the last time, again sorry about your blouse, Daiku got to much sugar and-"

"Heh, its fully alright, Kouseki-san. Kids remain kids".

After having ordered, she followed the brunette waiter making his way to another table, his bright smile warming the room. It did refresh her a little to see his fairly handsome familiar face...

Would she maybe meet a new face tonight?

(My very first post with Junko, so sorry if it seems a little jumbled together x.x, also not good at starts..)