Idea: An exert from The Life and Times of Namikaze Minato, from Kushina's point of view.
Reason: I'm still having trouble writing the full fic… this will probably be a bit of a character study of Kushina, Minato's girl. This piece takes place when they are genin; this is the 'Kumo Incident' from the kidnappee's point off view.
Other stuff: I read this cool fic where Kushina was Sakumo's (Kakashi's dad's) student. I hope you don't mind that I borrowed the idea.
Warning: This will include one of my OC's and mention a second one, neither are major characters, and I've done my best to make them likeable, you have been warned! So if I get a flame about them… you know what? Never mind. I am still developing them, tell me what you think of them and if I need to do something to make them more believable.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto! Gee… don't I wish…
Title: A Day in the Life of Uzumaki Kushina
(One-Shot)
A young girl with deep red hair scrunched her eyes as a ray of light entered her apartment through her window. She opened her eyes slowly and blinked, yawning widely as she sat up. She turned and looked out the window, the day was clear, no clouds in the sky to speak of and the sun was shining brightly. The air was crisp and clean, but when she looked at the clock, she realized that she didn't have much time to get ready. "If I'm late again, Sakumo-sensei will kill me!" She muttered as she rushed into her bathroom for a quick shower.
After her shower, Kushina rushed through dressing, there was no time to make breakfast, and she could always stop by the Ramen Stand to get it on the go. Kushina hopped around her apartment on one foot as she pulled on her shorts. She fell at least once. She put her feet into her sandals and started hopping out of the building as she secured her sandals to her feet and her Kunai and Shuriken pouches to her leg. Barely remembered to lock the door, it was a miracle that her apartment hadn't been broken into yet, there have already been several occasions where she'd left the door unlocked. Kushina could hear Kyuubi-san laughing as she finally started to run.
'Yeah, yeah, laugh it up Kyuubi-san…' she sent to the fox as she stopped at Ichiraku's for breakfast. Ramen was the best food ever; it had so many flavors that she was sure she'd never get tired of the stuff. Salt though, was her favorite flavor, hands down.
"Well, if you actually listened to me and set your alarm in the mornings you wouldn't be rushing every day now would you?" Kyuubi chortled. "You did remember your gear right?"
'Of course I remembered Kyuubi-san, dattebane!'
"Good because I seem to remember Sakumo-san saying that you have a mission after training today."[1]
Kushina's eyes lit up. 'That's right! We do!' She couldn't wait! She bolted down her breakfast and after paying and a quick "Thank you!" She ran off to the training grounds. She arrived just in time.
"Kushina… what am I going to do with you?" Sakumo asked exasperated.
"I'm sorry! I slept in a bit tteba…" Kushina laughed nervously, twirling a lock of her bright red hair around a finger.
"And you want to be Hokage…" Sakumo shook his head in clear amusement. "You had better shape up!"
"Yes Sakumo-sensei!"
After a full and tiring morning of training Sakumo-sensei had taken them to pick up a mission, they were in for a treat he assured them. They had gotten lucky and had drawn a C-rank. It was supposed to be a simple escort mission, they were escorting a caravan of merchants to the border of Mizu no Kuni where they would be handed off to a team of Kiri-nin.
"How long until we get to the port Sakumo-sensei?" Mikoto asked the silver haired White Fang curiously. The team had been traveling for about four hours and it felt like they were getting nowhere!
"At this rate…" Hatake Sakumo looked up at the sun, "I'd say we'll get there by nightfall at the earliest. The caravan will be stopping for dinner soon."
Mikoto pouted. "This is going to take forever!"
"Stop complaining Mikoto," Hizashi chided his secret friend, "if we went any faster we would leave the caravan defenseless."
"I suppose so… but going this slow makes me a bit antsy." Mikoto griped to both of her teammates. "It feels like we could be attacked at any moment!"
Kushina shot her best friend a look. "If you just jinxed us Miki, I'll kill you…"
"Sorry Kushina-chan… I didn't mean too…"
Several hours later they had been ambushed, something that they had been expecting, their clients were relatively well off judging by their clothes. But it wasn't bandits; their attackers had been Kumo-nin…
"Miki! This is all your fault!" Kushina shouted as she was carried away by the Kumo-nin. After they were far enough away she was put down and made to walk. When she looked at the sky night had already fallen.
"It should only take us a day to get to the boarder and then another day to get to Kumo boys." The leader said grinning broadly. "We will walk through the night to make it home on time, and then we'll see what Raikage-sama wants with this girl."
Kushina was thankful that her hands were tied behind her back. Every minute or so she pulled out a strand of her bright red hair and dropped it on the ground. 'I hope someone notices my trail of hair soon…' she wasn't one who got scared easily, but the C-Rank had gone to A, she was entitled to be a little fearful.
That had been several hours ago, now she found herself being held in a cave near the boarder. The sun had just begun to rise when they arrived at the cave. Kushina sighed as she yet again went over the events of the previous day in her head. When she had gotten up, the day was beautiful, not a cloud in sight and the sun shining brightly. She had dressed and left her apartment quickly. She had then grabbed a quick breakfast at Ichiraku's Ramen Stand and had met with Sakumo-sensei and her teammates: Hyuuga Hizashi and Uchiha Mikoto. [2]
Kushina sighed, praying that someone would rescue her soon. "Even that flaky show-off Namikaze would be a welcome sight right now…" she muttered, she wanted to go home, she'd been up for nearly twenty four hours and was feeling rather tired. It was hard to tell how much time had passed since arriving at the case this morning and she hadn't slept a wink. Even if she was a Kunoichi and was expected to be able to go for several days without sleep to get a mission done, she was still only ten; she needed her sleep. She didn't know what these Kumo-nin wanted with her, but she could very easily guess. "All they want, no doubt, is another Demon Container… I don't want to deal with this crap! I already have to deal with Kyuubi…"
Kushina was only partially joking. Kyuubi was really great company. He was funny. When she was lonely, he would tell stories about his mate and the clan of humans his troop had bonded with. But he never mentioned a name. She admired that clan. She would have loved to meet them… "Oh great… now I'm getting lonely…" She closed her eyes, holding back a yawn. "I hope someone found that trail of hair I left…" If she fell asleep, she might wake and find herself in Kumo, not at home in Konoha!
"It is alright little Vixen, we won't be left alone."
'If you say so, Kyuubi-san…' Kushina thought back to him. He was just trying to comfort her and she really appreciated it. "How did I end up getting kidnapped again? And why the heck did the day have to turn out so badly?" There hadn't been any warnings at all, not even a shiver down her spine to indicate foreboding!
Kyuubi didn't answer, but that was alright, she hadn't really expected him to. She knew how it had happened; she had gotten careless and hadn't been as observant as she should have been. "Some Kunoichi I am. If I can't watch my own back how am I going to protect a whole village? How am I going to be Hokage?" She muttered.
There was suddenly an explosion near her location. Then there was shouting and the sound of fighting. Kushina hoped that it was her rescue party. The loudness of the noise chased away her fatigue, for now at least. She would have tried to get out on her own, but her restraints were too tight and the knots to well done. Kushina didn't dare make a sound. What if it was Iwa and not a Konoha team? With war on the brink of being declared nowhere really felt safe.
Kushina's head shot up when she heard screams. She was sure that her captors were dying. "Please help me…" she nearly whimpered, hating herself for feeling so weak. "Please, I'll be forever grateful, even Flaky Namikaze…"
She heard a female voice. "Good job Kit, now, where is she?"
"She's here somewhere…" Kushina knew that voice! It was Minato! She held her breath, would he be able to find her without any help. She was almost to the point where she wanted to scream. She wanted to go home and take a bath and sleep in her own bed! She wanted to hang out with Miki-chan and spy on the boys and play pranks and train! Why had this happened to her? Was this want she got for being a Jinjuuriki? She hated being weak!
She heard the sounds of something sniffing the air, like one of Tsume's nin-dogs, like Kuromaru-kun. "She's over here." She then heard shifting of fabric as something was pulled out.
Kushina bent her head to protect herself as the door was blasted open. Namikaze-kun must have set an Explosive Tag. When she lifted her head she saw her new favorite person on the whole planet. She couldn't help but giggle when Flaky show-off Namikaze Minato hurried to her side and untied her.
"Do you think you can move on your own?" Minato asked her softly, his diamond blue eyes warm and sparkling with concern.
"I don't think so…" She muttered sadly as she watched him untie the ropes. "I feel so useless…" she whined as the ropes fell. She lifted her hand and rubbed her eyes, trying to rub away the sleepiness that plagued her. She had to be alert; that was what had gotten her into this situation in the first place!
"Don't be like that little one." Came the gentle female voice from before, Kushina looked up to see a huge four tailed ebony black fox with golden eyes. "You are safe now and that's what matters."
"Yeah, Ku-chan, don't be like that. Everyone has their off days." Minato gave her what looked like a reassuring grin.
"Even you?" Kushina asked him. Even the genius of her generation had off days? That was news to her! She ignored the endearment for now, right now she'd let him call her almost anything she was so happy to see him.
"Mmhmm, even me." Minato confessed; his expression and eyes flattened as the emotions drained away. "I had a bad week before you came to Konoha, Ku-chan. I lost my mother."
Kushina looked down, she had not expected that. "But you always tell everyone she's on a mission." She almost felt bad for him.
"I do that, because I don't want anyone's pity." Minato told her curtly as he picked her up. "I don't want it, nor do I need it."
Kushina looked up at him wonderingly as he turned to the fox. "Shina-onee-sama, can you kneel down so that I can put Ku-chan on your back?"
"Of course Minato." Kushina watched the fox, 'Shina'; kneel as she was lifted slightly. Then Minato let her go when she was sitting just behind Shina's shoulders. "Minato-kit, it would be faster if you rode on my back also."
"Hai, Shina-onee-sama." Minato jumped up and settled himself in front of his crush. "Hold onto my waist tightly ok? Shina-onee goes really fast and we wouldn't want you to fall off, right?"
Kushina nodded. "…Right…" she brought her arms up to encircle Minato's waist and held on tightly. She closed her eyes. "What time is it?"
"Sunset." Minato answered, "There is no way that we are going to reach the village today. Plus, this is a solo mission because Iwa declared war several hours after you went missing. Hokage-sama couldn't spare a team to come so he chose the best of the graduating class."
Her arms tightened around him even more at the news. "Did they ever figure out what Kumo wanted with me?" She asked.
"Yeah, they did." Minato looked at her over his shoulder sadly. "I haven't been told, but Jiraiya-sensei promised that he'd tell us when we get back to the village."
"Minato, it's nearing curfew." Shina told them, "I'm going to stop soon so that you can set up a camp."
"Hai." Minato replied. Kushina looked at his hands for the first time and saw that his knuckles were nearly white. She was really fighting sleep now; the fox's movement under her was barely keeping her awake.
A few minutes later Shina came to a stop in a clearing. "I'm stopping here for the night Kits. Minato, you need to get her off my back, I'll get firewood while you secure the camp."
"Yes Onee-sama." Minato slid off her then he pulled Kushina off of the fox's back and into his arms, bridal style. "You ok?"
Kushina nodded and Minato put her down next to a bush before digging out a fire pit. "Can I do anything?" Kushina asked. "I hate feeling useless!"
"Well, you could get some rations out of my pack; it's right next to you. As for your legs, I think they might have used some kind of Jutsu on them to make them numb." Minato told her, pointing to the pack next to her.
Kushina nodded. "Ok." She opened the bag and pulled out a scroll labeled 'food'. She set it out next to her. "What else?" She quickly hid a yawn; she didn't want him to see her as weak.
"There is only one bedroll and it's rather large, because it belonged to my mother. You can pull that out too if you want to. I also have a blanket if you want that instead." Minato told her.
Kushina looked through the knapsack and pulled out the blanket.
Shina chose that minute to return with the firewood. "I'm back." She put the sticks next to the fire pit Minato had dug out and watched as Minato started a fire to cook their food.
"Onee-sama, can you grab the food scroll that Ku-chan pulled out earlier?" Minato asked as he lit the fire.
Shina nodded even though Minato wasn't looking at her and brought him the scroll. Kushina watched in awe as Minato cooked their dinner to perfection. It tasted wonderful!
"You should get to bed soon Minato; Mother wouldn't want you to make yourself sick now that you are her only protection." Shina nudged him with her nose.
Minato yawned. "You're right, Nee-chan, Okaa-sama would scold me…" Minato stretched as Shina seemed to grow in size until she almost filled the clearing. Minato then pulled out the bedroll.
Kushina watched Shina settle herself, her tails forming a bit of a roof over the two genin. Only a minute later, Minato came up and put her in the bedroll with her back against Shina's side. "What are you doing?"
He smiled. "Since you can't move I thought you might want to be in the middle, Shina-onee-sama, Kybi-okaa-sama [3] and I do it all the time. Shina and Okaa-sama are like furnaces so you won't get cold." He tactfully left out the fact that she would be better protected this way. She might not take it very well. Kushina nodded, not sure how to deal with this new side of Namikaze. She settled herself in the bedroll; there was just one thing she wanted to ask him before she fell asleep.
"How did you find me?" Kushina asked Minato as he curled up next to her on the bedroll.
"I noticed the trail of hair you left." Minato smiled, "how could I not, your hair is so pretty, everyone else who was looking for you must have been blind not to notice the beautiful red hair on the ground." [4]
She doesn't know why, but she finds herself blushing, she isn't quite as tired anymore as she stares at her rescuer (he thought her plain red hair was pretty?). And as she watches Minato settle down next to her, Kushina couldn't help but think that Minato might not be such a bad guy after all.
(End One-Shot)
I hope you liked it! There are a few things you need to know though. If Minato and Kushina seem a bit awkward, that was on purpose. Minato may know that he is in love with Kushina, but she doesn't now how to feel about him. Plus, Kushina is ten and isn't quite out of the 'boys are icky' stage yet, on top of being a tomboy. If it looks like Kushina's starting to develop a crush on Minato that's because she is.
Also, mind you. Minato might know that he loves Kushina, but he has no idea how to express it. So far, as I've hinted at, he has only shown off how good a ninja he is. He is only ten after all.
Now the Footnotes:
[1] Kyuubi is OOC, please don't flame me for it. At least I didn't make Kyuubi a girl. This Kyuubi is nice.
[2] We have no idea who her teammates were, so, instead of creating more OCs then I need, I just used characters we are familiar with. It's the same for her sensei. Yes I know they seen slightly OOC, This is Hizashi not Hiashi, a lot of twins develop this way, act alike when little and then grow apart as their interests change. And we know that Mikoto was Kushina's best friend so why not?
[3] These are My OCs! Please be kind when judging them! This is before Minato signs the Toad contract so sorry if you like them and wanted them in the story. Are they believable?
[4] This information is canon. In her conversation with Naruto, Kushina says that her hair became the thread that brought her to her soul mate and that she fell in love with Minato after he complemented her hair. Just thought I'd add that in.
Neph