"You're nothing. No one cares about you. Minato hasn't come back from his mission yet and he probably won't. Who would want to come back to you? We're monsters, after all." The beast that resided within me whispered. I tried to block the voice but it still managed to slip through the cracks in my armor. "You've been sitting here for days and no one has come to even see if you're still alive. No one would notice if you were dead."
"No. That's not true. Minato's mission is just running a little longer than expected, and everyone else is busy on missions." I replied, rolling over on my bed and hugging a pillow to my chest, wishing it was Minato.
He had been gone for a week and his mission was only supposed to last a few days; three or four tops. I'd been in my apartment since the fourth day. I hadn't felt like leaving and so I had stayed inside with only the fox for company.
"Don't lie to yourself. They are scared of you. You have no friends. You should accept me and let me help you kill them all." The silken whispers were tantalizing. Since I had become a jinchuuriki people avoided me. They looked at me with disgust and hatred in their eyes. They would refuse to serve me and those that were seen with me. Minato's popularity plummeted when we went public with our relationship. He insisted he didn't care what other people thought but I could see the hurt in his eyes whenever we were turned away.
I felt anger fill me as I continued to think about all of those who had ever done anything wrong to me. My hands clenched into fists and I barely registered the fact that my now sharp nails broke the skin of my palms. Blood dripped onto the blankets and pillows.
The sharp, metallic scent of it made the Kyuubi laugh darkly. "We could be great together. No one would ever dare turn away from us again. We could have anything we wanted."
"People would be too afraid to turn away from us." I replied, trying to keep calm.
"Exactly, child. Merge with me and we would be the most feared ninja in the five great nations."
"I don't want to be feared. I want to be loved: by Minato, my friends, the people of this village." I thought of the love I had found here, in this village, and my anger ebbed.
"Foolish, girl. You have a demon inside of you. No one could love you."
"Minato does." I said, softly. I loved him, too. I had never loved someone as I loved him. He was the epitome of the Will of Fire. I wish I could have his optimism most days, but having the voice of a demon in your tended to bring you down pretty quickly.
"For now, but what happens when you lose control and kill one of his friends. How could he ever forgive you?"
"I will never let that happen. I will never hurt him, or anyone in this village."
"But what about the people outside this village. Say… the ones who killed your parents? You know who they are, don't you? Let's go right now and slaughter them all. Let them feel your fury for taking away the ones you loved." His words brought back a memory of my mother and me in our kitchen in Whirlpool.
"Kushina, hand me that bowl." My mother said, gesturing to a large plastic bowl sitting across the countertop. I raced around the island to get it and then brought it back quickly to her.
"Good girl." She said, accepting the bowl I held up to her.
She poured sugar, flour, vanilla, and even cracked an egg into the bowl. Then she started mixing all the contents together. I watched attentively as she worked. She loved cooking and someday I wanted to be just like her. I wanted to especially have her talent for making her magic chocolate chip cookies.
Soon, she was rolling the dough into small balls and placing them on a cooking sheet, which she then placed into the oven. I still hadn't figured out the secret ingredient she used which made the cookies extra soft, even after they cooled.
I guess I would never know now.
Anger grew in me as I thought of the night my life, as I had known it, had ended. The screams and smoke outside which first alerted my parents something was wrong. My mother, shoving me into a tunnel beneath a rug in her room, telling me to go down the tunnel and stay there until I was sure it was safe. Disobeying her and leaving the tunnel a few minutes later and then going through the town to see what was happening.
I went down the lane, hiding behind houses and under bushes whenever anyway approached. Finally, I found my parents. They were in the middle of town fighting a large group of people. They were losing.
My father went to dodge a sword, but was too slow. It went through his belly and out the other side. My mother screamed his name, and didn't see the ninja sneaking up behind her. The ninja grabbed either side of her head and twisted sharply. A cracking noise that even I could hear from several yards away sounded. Her body dropped, lifeless, to the ground. I looked back over to my father to see that, he too, had fallen to the ground. He wasn't moving. I memorized the faces of those who had killed my parents and I vowed to find them, and kill them.
Too shocked to cry, I left the shadow of the building I had been hiding in and ran as fast as I could back to my house. Our part of the town remained untouched, as the enemy ninja had mostly stayed in the center.
I raced up to my parents' room and uncovered the tunnel. I jumped into it and shut the door behind me.
I was found several days later by a kindly old man who had also managed to escape. We scoped out the village, and found a few others who had survived. We decided to make our way to Konoha, our ally in the north.
"Imagine their screams as you torture them for what they did to you. We can escape from the village tonight. No one would notice. It would take less than a week for us to find them. Then, we could take our time with them." I felt myself start to give into my anger and his words. It was so tempting. I could show those men how much hurt they had caused me all those years ago. I would avenge my parents.
I scooted to the edge of the bed, not noticing the thin coat of poisonous chakra that was sliding over my skin or that it was turning the sheets black.
I knelt beside the bed and reached under it to pull out one of my packs.
Suddenly, the room flooded with light as the door opened. I sprang up and prepared to attack. A halo outlined the silhouette of the intruder. I snarled. "Get out!"
"Kushina?" a familiar voice asked.
"Minato." I realized, relaxing slightly, but still in an offensive position.
"What are you doing?" he asked, stepping fully into the room. I could see him now. He was filthy. His clothes torn and mud-splattered. His hair was matted to his head with sweat and dirt. His bright blue eyes looked worried as he continued to edge closer.
"I can sense the Nine-Tails chakra. You need to calm down, Kushina." He said.
"No. What I need to do is avenge my parents. I've spent enough time here. This is something I need to do." I argued. My voice was a little lower and raspier, another side effect of the Kyuubi.
He was coming closer still. "We can do it together. I can help you. You don't need his power." He replied.
"No, this is something I need to do alone." I said angrily.
He was standing in front of me now. "Kushina, I love you. Let me help you. You're letting the Nine-Tails influence you. Please think this through."
Deep down, I knew he was right but it was hard to let go of my anger.
He pulled me to him, despite all the warning signs. My eyes were probably an orangey-red with slit pupils. My nails were long and sharp, and the demon chakra cloak was pulsing over my skin.
My arms went around to his back and my nails ripped through his shirt and scraped his skin. He didn't even flinch. I held on tightly. I didn't want to let go. It felt like Minato was soaking up all my anger until I had nothing left.
I looked up into his eyes and I could only see love for me there. "Better?" he asked, softly.
I nodded. My eyes filled with tears of gratitude and I buried my head into his chest. Even though he had just gotten back from a mission and he smelled like sweat and mud, I could still appreciate the smell of him. While I cried and smelled him, he rubbed my back soothingly.
When I was done, I pulled away and whispered a quiet thank you. I glanced up at him, in time to see him smile.
"Come on, let's go take a shower. You stink." He said, pulling me towards the bathroom. I laughed shakily and smacked his butt.
"You're one to talk." I retorted.
My descent into darkness had been stopped, but I fearfully wondered if, someday, Minato wasn't there, I would descend and never return.
These thoughts were quickly driven out of my head, however, by the sound of clothes hitting the floor. Soon, I was distracted by more important things.
This will be a compilation of one-shots for Kushina and Minato. Please give me writing prompts to write about. It can be a line of dialogue, an action, a word, a song, anything; well, as long as it's not a whole paragraph long. PM or review your suggestions to me and I will try to write as many as I can. Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed my story.