Several days have passed since Sasuke & I had first arrived in Ponyville and during that time, I stayed at the library with Twilight and sasuke stay with rainbow dash as soon they were dating I would either assist her and Spike with various odd jobs or gather information on Equestria by reading some of the books in the library. I really seemed to enjoy the peace and quiet of the town which is something we could never get used to back in Konoha. The friendly inhabitants were another feature of Ponyville that the shinobi-pony welcomed; he was still oblivious to the looks of attraction he got from the local young mares though. He even grew accustomed to the local cuisine of vegetation and this really surprised him since he would usually turn his nose up at eating fresh vegetables let alone grass and flowers. But my favorite feature about Ponyville were my six new friends.
I really got along with each and every one of them and just loved to hang out with them individually or all together. Naruto enjoyed watching Rainbow Dash's 'aerial feats of awesomeness' as she called them, helping Fluttershy feed the animals, pulling pranks with Pinkie Pie, having conversations with Rarity over a nice cup of tea, picking apples with Applejack, and listening to Twilight's lectures on magic. The girls felt the same way about him
The flight training with Rainbow Dash went over well, considering he and sasuke jumped off the apple family's barn about fifty times before finally understanding what he was doing wrong. Instead of letting their wings remain loose and adjustable to the patterns of the wind, he kept them rigid just as he used them to glide over Ponyville, and his lack of skill at gliding was the reason he was here in the first place. He laughed at the reasoning behind Dash's methods in her exact wording. "If you can't get yourself off the ground with those wings, then we need to find a way to make you stay in the air then." Which led him to start jumping off the apple family's roof trying to fly to a bale of hay. The plan seemed perfect in theory to both of them at least, but both forgot one basic thing he barely knew in the first place. After the first dozen attempts he crashed into one of the apple family's golden delicious apple trees. this led to an imprompt argument between Sasuke and , about wing adjustment, and that led to him finally figuring out to hover his body off the ground for brief moments similar to what Fluttershy did according to Dash.
, Fluttershy believed him to be strong yet sweet, Pinkie thought he was super fun, he was glorious in Rarity's eyes, Applejack saw he was hardworking and friendly, and Twilight felt that he was just an all around nice guy which she had come to know from personal experience.
Out of gratitude for giving him a place to stay, Naruto would volunteer to cook most of the meals for the three of them plus Twilight was grateful to have somepony keep Spike company whenever she was out doing errands that took up a lot of time; she was just glad the two of them quickly became friends. The unicorn even had to admit to herself that having a stallion around the house was rather nice because it apparently created the feeling of a cozy three-pony family.
Applejack introduced Naruto to her family earlier that week and it went off without a problem. Big Macintosh seemed to like him and so did Apple Bloom who took the opportunity to tease her big sister about having a boyfriend. Granny Smith took an instant like to him as well but this seemed to be somewhat bittersweet since the elder pony would sneak up behind him and give his flank a quick slap then mutter something about being a young filly again almost every time he would take his eyes off of her. It was the first time I had ever experienced true fear in Ponyville.
The little Apple filly even took liberty to drag him away and introduce Naruto to her own friends, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, then the trio introduced themselves as the Cutie Mark Crusaders; he had to admit these three fillies reminded him of Konohamaru and his friends. They explained to him that they went around Ponyville to find out their special talents thus finally obtain their cutie marks. The stallion quickly volunteered to come along with them if they ever needed him and the girls took him up on his offer. It seemed in his eyes Ponyville was no different to Konoha than he originally thought but I kept feeling like there was still something missing . . . Narrtater pov Today, Naruto was out having a little stroll in town as he tried figuring out the empty feeling in the pit of his stomach; it wasn't hunger because he just had a snack few minutes ago.
"What could it possibly be?" he asked himself, "this is gonna drive me crazy until I figure it out. It's times like this when I could really use a bowl of Ichiraku ramen-"
He silenced himself and slapped himself in the face as punishment for his stupidity.
"That's the problem! I haven't had a bowl of ramen in almost a week! I'm suffering from total ramen withdrawal," he said but quickly got melancholy look about him, "except there's no ramen places in Ponyville so I'm out of luck there."
But ramen withdrawal was the least of his personal problems because he had to admit that despite all the fun he had with his friends and doing any errands Twilight had him do, Naruto recently started feeling a little bored. He may be a pony now though he was still a shinobi at heart and needed at least a little excitement in his life or something exciting to do. He came to notice almost every pony in Ponyville had some sort of job to keep them pretty busy during the days; maybe that's what he needed.
He donned a thinking look, "But what job could I possibly get?"
The answer came to him at the speed of thought, "If there's no ramen places in this town, maybe I could bring the miracle of ramen to Ponyville. I do still remember how to make homemade ramen but how does a pony start his own business here?"
He quickly returned to the library and told Twilight his thoughts in hopes she could help.
"You wanna open your own restaurant?" she asked and he nodded in response.
"Sounds like a great idea," says Spike, "your cooking is really good so there's no worries there."
"Thanks Spike but I still don't know how to get started around here," said Naruto, "I mean I at least need a restaurant."
"Hey Twilight, isn't there a vacant restaurant downtown?" asked Spike.
"That's right! There is one but we'd better go see if it's still available before we get too excited," she said.
"What vacant restaurant?" asked the stallion.
Spike quickly climbed onto Twilight's back as she answered, "C'mon. We'll show you."
The three of them went right out the door; Naruto followed the unicorn and dragon for at least a half an hour until they stopped in front of a vacant two-story building constructed from wood with yellow walls, green window shutters on the second floor, a brown front door, and a blue roof. It was near the same size as Sugarcube Corner but slightly shorter despite the stone chimney coming from the roof of the second floor with large bay windows located at the south, east, and west walls of the ground floor. There was a 'For Sale' sign posted on the door which was a good yet obvious indication of availability.
"Is this the place?" asked Naruto.
"Yes. The previous owner was a talented chef who recently moved to Trottingham, just days before you arrived in Ponyville as a matter of fact," said Twilight.
"Think this'll would work, Naruto?" asked Spike.
"Oh yeah. Now I just need to talk to somepony about buying this place," answered the stallion.
"Look no further," sounded a female voice then the three turned to find the Mayor of Ponyville walking towards them.
"Madam Mayor, what are you doing here?" asked the unicorn.
"I was enjoying a nice stroll around town and I couldn't help noticing you taking an interest in this building," asked the older mare.
"Yes we were. My friend here," she glanced at Naruto then back at the Mayor, "was hoping to open his own restaurant."
The Mayor turned her attention to the young stallion, "Well, you couldn't have chosen a better location Mr. . . ."
"Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki ma'am," he finished her sentence.
"Naruto Uzumaki. For you see, this restaurant isn't only a restaurant. The second floor is residential housing complete with a living room, two bedrooms, a small kitchen, and a bathroom. And all still in good condition."
Everypony turned their attention to the entire building as Naruto spoke, "This place sounds perfect. What is Ponyville Real Estate asking for it?"
"Well considering the condition and custom build, the asking price is ten thousand bits," said the Mayor with a straight face.
Twilight and Spike's eyes grew wide while Naruto was given a look of pure surprise as he let out a wheeze of disbelief, "T-t-t-t-t-ten th-th-th-thousand bits?"
"Um . . Mayor, isn't there another less costly option?" asked Twilight.
"Yes there is. Ponyville Real Estate is offering a limited time alternative paying method for ponies who cannot pay full price upfront. It works like this - the buyer must at least provide a small down payment upfront in exchange for living in the household and the buyer must continue paying a fee of a certain amount or more every two weeks or so until the full price is met," explained the Mayor.
"So . . . it's like paying rent instead you're paying to not just live there but to also buy the house," said Naruto.
"That's a good way to put it, yes."
He thought for a second then said, "Well, I used to live in an apartment back in my homeland so I could do this, not problem. I'll take it."
"Excellent, I'll stroll on over to the real estate office and my office to retrieve the proper paperwork and I'll meet you back here in a hour," she turned around and walked over.
"You got it, Mayor!" Naruto said happily and he got a chuckle out of her.
He turned back to his friends as Spike says, "That solves one problem."
"But he still needs to make a down payment, Spike. Or else he can't move in," says Twilight.
"But where am I supposed to get the bits for the payment?" asks Naruto then they all donned thinking faces.
This lasted a few seconds before a lightbulb went off inside the orange stallion's head when a quick memory popped into his head.
"I got it!" he exclaimed, shocking his friends, then he galloped down the street as Twilight quickly followed.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"Carousel Boutique!" he called then he 'shifted into high gear' and sped ahead, leaving only a small dust cloud in his wake.
Now Twilight and Spike were confused as the dragon said, "What does he want with clothes?"
"No clue," she answered.
