Information area

The Land of Whirlpool is Kushina's birth country. It is actually a big island, like Greenland, and it has a ninja village, the Village Hidden in the Whirlpool and the Uzumaki clan, the only ninja in that country, inhabits it. The reason they are the only ninja clan in the country is because the Uzumaki clan are originally from another country, but they abandoned their home long ago and came to the land of Whirlpool and created their own shinobi village, so that's why it's called the Land of Whirlpool.

Kushina Uzumaki is 19 years old. She has blood red hair and green eyes. Her favorite color is green and she hates pink. She is known for her tomboyish attitude.

Amira Uzumaki is the mother of Kushina. She is 40 years old and married to the head of the Uzumaki clan. She is a kind and cheerful woman. People say Kushina gets her beauty from her, though Amira's hair has a more orange shade than Kushina's blood red. Her eyes are gray-blue.

Akira & Nina are twins, 18 years old. They are Kushina's cousins. Akira and Nina both have chestnut brown hair and green eyes. They don't like wearing make-up so much, which is probably one of the reasons they get along with Kushina so well.

Prologue

"Come on Kushina, hurry up," Akira yelled impatiently from downstairs.

Kushina sighed and grabbed her rucksack; some times her cousins were too impatient, way too impatient for their own good. But that was just because of their Uzumaki genes, she wasn't known for being ms. Patience either but some were more impatient than others and she was a part of the others. She braided her waist-long hair into one long braid and swung the rucksack over one of her shoulders and ran down the stairs, or as quickly as someone could run down stairs since they are easier to trip on than flat ground.

"Finally, what took you so long?" Nina asked, just as annoyed as her sister was. Yes, she was a real Uzumaki.

"Sorry girls," Kushina apologized, "I just had some trouble finding my favorite bikini, turned out it was under my bed, and"…

"Yeah, yeah we get it, you don't have to tell us more, why can't you just wear your other bikini for a change? Wearing the same set of clothes for too long is really gross, you know".

"Because it's pink, that's why," Kushina said. Her cousins sighed in unison as they once again were reminded that Kushina was a tomboy and therefore hated pink.

"And I do wash this bikini, you know," Kushina added. Then she turned to the front door and opened it. She smiled as the fresh air from outside filled the room. It was another perfect sunny day in the Land of Whirlpool, perfect for a trip to the beach.

"Shall we go then, ladies?" she asked, gesturing towards the two girls, like a gentleman gesturing politely for them to go first.

Her cousins rolled their eyes at her and went through the door.

When they arrived at their favorite beach the three girls eagerly spread their towels out on the soft sand ground and started to take their clothes off. All three of the girls were wearing their swimwear underneath their normal clothes; it was easier that way.

When they were finished, wearing nothing but their bikini, they laid down on their towels to relax.

Going to the beach was like a tradition those three girls had, they did it almost every day, at least three times a week. Kushina was glad she lived in the Whirlpool country, it probably had the most wonderful beaches in the world and it was sunny every day, which gave her and her cousins lots of opportunities to go to the beach. The Land of Whirlpool was a true paradise.

Kushina sighed, inhaling the scent of the sand, and the sea, which was only feet away from her. She gazed upwards and saw a few seagulls flying by. She wondered where they were heading, probably to some country she had never been in and probably would never go to. Kushina had never been anywhere outside the Whirlpool country and neither had any of her friends. The only one, she knew about, who had ever been outside the country was her uncle. It wasn't normal for any Whirlpool ninja, or normal citizen for that matter, to go anywhere outside the country but her uncle was a business man who took care of the deals with other countries if they needed any supplies they couldn't provide themselves. Kushina was an adventurous girl and she had been delighted when her uncle once asked her to accompany him on a business trip to the Sea country. She had been very disappointed when her father had denied her. Kushina had been twelve back then. Now she had given up on leaving the country, if she knew her father well enough he would rather keep her in the Whirlpool country till the day she died.

But on moments like these, when she was at the beach with her cousins she forgot why she had even wanted to leave in the first place, what more could she want, she had the sun, the sea and the sand, there was nothing else she needed.

Kushina sat up. She turned her head to look at her cousins. Akira was lying on a pink towel right next to her and next to Akira was Nina, lying on a purple towel. Kushina herself had brought an orange towel. Just the colors of their towels showed how different the girls were, while Akira and Nina preferred more girly colors like pink, purple and such, Kushina preferred bright orange and green, which was the color of her favorite bikini, which she was now wearing.

Kushina laid down on her towel again to watch the sky. She wasn't lazy and boring, no that was not the reason she was doing this, she was currently watching the sky because she felt like doing nothing else at the moment. She always occupied herself with sky watching while trying to catch some sun, sometimes she might see something interesting passing by like those seagulls from before or maybe even a falcon or some other kind of bird. There weren't many clouds on days like these where the weather was extra hot and where civilians were working more hours than usual. For a person from another country this might be too much and the sun might burn their skin red like Kushina's hair, but for the Uzumakis and the other citizens this was quite normal and the heath didn't bother them that much.

"Anyone who wants to join me in the water?" she asked after a while, having decided she had gotten enough sun for the time being.

"Sure," Akira said eagerly and jumped up from her lying position. Kushina laughed at her. "What about you Nina?"

There was no answer.

Akira went over to her sister and patted her on the shoulder as Nina was lying on her stomach. Nina just moaned and turned her head away from her sister; she was obviously far away in dreamland.

"Well too bad for her," Akira said, "she must be fast asleep".

"Well then we'll go without her," Kushina said with a smirk.

Akira agreed and the two girls raced down to the sea. They reached the water at the exact same time and they both laughed.

"You know what Kushina?" Akira asked with a playful smirk across her face.

"No, what?" Kushina asked suspiciously, not liking that big smirk of her cousin's.

"I was wondering..." Akira walked in a half circle behind Kushina, who turned her head and tried to follow her with her eyes. The next thing happened so fast that if you had blinked you would have missed it. The next thing Kushina knew was that she was half lying in the water glaring at her cousin, who was obviously responsible for that. Akira laughed. "Never let your enemy get behind you," she reminded Kushina, still laughing. Kushina just continued glaring at her, obviously not amused by her cousin's little prank.

"What's the matter Kushina?" Akira said, still laughing, "the cat ate your tong?"

At that Kushina groaned. "Come out here and fight if you dare," she spat viciously.

Akira still laughed, though her laughter started to fade slowly now. "Oh I can assure you that I dare," she told Kushina and slowly made her way to Kushina in the water.

Akira approached Kushina and when she was close enough the girls jumped at each other and soon it became more than splashing water on each other and pull each other, trying to make the other one lose balance but neither of them had any luck.

It was during their intense taijutsu fight that Nina had woken up and yelled at them, asking them what they were doing and why they hadn't woken her up so she could join them. Then Akira had looked back at her and said that hadn't she been such a heavy sleepyhead she could have joined them. It was then that Kushina took the opportunity and pushed her cousin, which was too occupied to concentrate on the fight and Akira had been so surprised by the attack that she had immediately lost her balance and fallen backwards into the water.

During the fall Akira had let out a surprised cry that had sounded like something between a pig and a cow and both Kushina and Nina had burst into laughter. Of course Akira hadn't been the slightest amused and she had started to yell very loud about how unfair it was and about how Kushina had no honor.

Shortly after, when Kushina and Nina had stopped laughing and when Akira had calmed down after her anger outburst, Nina joined her cousin and twin in the water. Soon the three girls were in the middle of a mild water fight and were splashing non-stop on each other, laughing madly.

When the girls got out of the water they laid themselves down flat on the towels. After their water fight they had simply split up and gone to do whatever they felt like, in Kushina's case cliff diving, from a cliff in the middle of the water, not too far away from land. She had paid no attention to what her cousins were doing, she was in her right element and she enjoyed it fully, not caring about anything else. Unfortunately she had gotten tired after a while and had headed back to the land.

Kushina looked at the few clouds in the sky above her with dreamy eyes. This was paradise. Her country was the best in the whole wide world, she was sure of it, even though she had never seen it.

Kushina slowly opened her eyes. The first thing she noticed was the dark blue sky above her. 'It must be evening now,' she thought, but how? 'I guess I fell asleep after I left the water'.

Kushina sat up and looked to her right. There on a pink towel was Akira, lying completely still on her back, the only sound she was making was the sound of her regular breathing. Kushina smiled, this had happened a couple of times before, that they ended up falling asleep under the burning sun on the beach. She wondered what time it was. She turned to her rucksack and unzipped the first pocket, in the front where she kept her watch on occasions like these when she couldn't wear it around her wrist, since it wasn't waterproof. She found it with ease and drew it out of the pocket and looked at the round face. It was 8:47 PM.

Kushina sighed and put her watch back into her pocket and zipped it closed again. If she didn't return home soon her parents might get worried and go look for her. That was the only thing she really hated about her parents; they were so overprotective some times, way too much for her liking, it was obviously hopeless to try to convince them that she wasn't a child anymore, she was nineteen, almost a full-grown woman, why wasn't she allowed to do as she pleased? Kushina sighed; she knew the answer already. She was an Uzumaki, a proud member of the most powerful ninja-clan in the Land of Whirlpool – and the only ninja clan in the Land of Whirlpool, she thought sarcastically. And she wasn't just any member of the Uzumaki clan; she was the only daughter of the main household. Because she had a brother she was not the clan heir, so she had a little more freedom than he had, one of the only good things about being a woman, but she still wasn't allowed to behave just as she pleased, after all she was a Lady of the main household, her job was to set a good example for the people who were less worth than she, what ever that meant. In Kushina's eyes all people were equal. Her father had been against her going to the beach with her cousins as much as she did, that was not proper for a Lady, he had told her. Kushina had had to put all her concentration in holding back her anger and not rolling her eyes at him. It was in moments like those that Kushina saw her mother as her savior, an angel sent to her from above. Amira Uzumaki had convinced her husband that a little time off on the beach couldn't hurt and that it was foolish to deny Kushina access to the beach when she lived in a country like the Land of Whirlpool. Kushina was very grateful for her mother's interference. Even though her father hadn't actually given her a deadline for when to be at home she knew he wouldn't like it if she stayed out too long. Kushina wished she could be normal and free like the citizens in the village. She really envied her cousins for their freedom and how they had no such responsibilities as she had as a Lady, but she could only imagine how her brother felt, being the clan heir and having much more duties and responsibilities than she. But sometimes Kushina felt it to be unfair that her brother was the heir just because he was a boy even though she was older. She had never complained though because she didn't miss the special attention her father was giving her before her brother was born, she was glad those days were over and she loved her brother very much, as a sister should, and she knew that he loved her too just as much.

Sighing Kushina rose to her feet and went past Akira to wake Nina first, since she was the most difficult one to wake and she knew that if Nina wasn't awake, Akira would go back to sleep until she was.

Kushina sat down on her knees next to the sleeping twin on the purple towel and smiled. Nina had always been the world's biggest sleepyhead.

Slowly reaching her hand out to touch her cousin, Kushina leaned closer to whisper into her ear.

"Pst, Nina," Kushina whispered, smiling at how heavy her cousin could sleep, "it's time to wake up, we have got to go home now, we're done for the day, we can go back tomorrow".

There was a slight moan from Nina. Kushina sighed, this wasn't going to be easy, but well, she thought optimistically, at least she got a reaction.

After a while of trying she got more than a moan in response.

"Ku-kushina," Nina murmured tiredly as she saw her cousin's smiling face next to her.

"Finally, you're awake," Kushina said, smiling, "I was afraid I'd have to carry you home on my back".

"Hm?" Nina murmured I response.

"We've all slept here for quite some time, I think we better get moving back home before the old people get really mad," Kushina explained, seeing the confusion displayed on her cousin's tired face.

"Oh," Nina said awkwardly and began to look at the surroundings. "You're right, it's kind off dark out here". Kushina nodded. "Mind giving me a hand with your sister?" she asked.

Nina agreed and as soon as she was dressed she went to her twin sister.

When all three of them were dressed and ready to leave they went down to the water and kneeled in front of it, careful not to get wet and said their goodbyes and see you soon's to the seawater and the sand. This was something they always did, it was like their own sacred ritual, which they had agreed to tell no one about. Kushina bent down on her hands and knees and lowered her head to kiss the soft sand ground in front of her, making a promise to come back the next day. Her twin cousins were just standing on each side of her, looking at the horizon, waiting for their redheaded cousin to finish her goodbye.

Suddenly the ground beneath their feet, and hands in Kushina's case, shook and the twins fell backwards while Kushina was just forced down on her stomach.

The 'earthquake', which Kushina assumed it was, stopped as quickly as it began.

"Wh-what was that?" Akira stuttered, her voice affected by the shock, while her sister was trembling wildly beside her.

"I don't know," Kushina said, rising to her feet and brushed the sand off her, which was stuck to her shaking body. "Let's head back to the village and find out".

A/N: So? How was it? Good? Bad? I'd really like to know so post a review okay? This was the prologue, chapter one will be up soon, if you review, that is.