Chapter 1: First Meeting
It was the first day she came to the Konohagakure. Young Kushina was to introduce herself in front of the class that she was enrolled in in the academy. She nervously scanned through the people in the classroom, and amongst them all, a boy with yellow spiky hair stood out like a sore thumb compared to the other kids' average appearances and caught her attention.
He was staring at her, wondering who she was just like everyone else was in the class. To her, he seemed sissy and unreliable but she had to admit that he was cute, especially with his bright blue eyes that were calm and innocent.
He was so cute that just having him staring at her for a good amount of time was enough to made her feel like she was stripping naked and she had to broke the eye contact and looked away to calm her beating heart, blushing a little in the process. She had always acted boyishly and all, but with that overwhelmingly cute face of his, even a tomboy's heart like Kushina's would go weak against him.
"All right, we have a new transfer student today who will be attending Konoha Academy." The teacher said as a signal for her to introduce herself. Kushina quickly gain composure and confidence. "Uzumaki Kushina dattebane!" her voice unexpectedably came out loud and strong and she quickly covered her mouth.
"Huh?" the kids were shocked by her loud voice and her verbal tic, and soon the class erupted into chatters and mocking laughters. "Look at her weird hair!" "How can someone have a hair like that?" "How did you make it so red?" "It's really weird." "I wouldn't go out with a hair like that." She looked down and bit her lip embarrassedly as everyone in the class ridiculed and jeered at her hair. Little did she know that the same boy with yellow hair just stayed calm and did not utter a single thing about her. He was never the type that would ridicule anyone. Plus, he did not think that her hair was weird, to him it looked stunning.
Being ridiculed like that, she thought she needed to regain her pride and as soon as the teacher shushed them out and settled down the class, she gathered some confidence and hollered, "I… I'm going to become Konoha's first female Hokage!" The class fell quiet, shocked at her statement.
The blonde had kept quiet from the start then found an admiration for her strong confidence and her big dream about becoming a Hokage. He then slowly stood up but without hesitation. "I want to become a great Hokage who will be admired by everyone in the village too." said the boy rather cheerfully as he pounded his chest with a smile and his eyes closed. For a 10-year-old boy, his voice was deep, yet soothing at the same time.
He thought she was interesting and definitely different from other normal girls with her strong ambition and bravery to speak like that in front of the class. He wanted her to know that he, too, had an ambitious goal like her. At first Kushina was quite surprised at how bravely the shy-looking blonde stood up and spoke of his dream, but she could not help but to wonder if he did that to also save her from another wave of teasing.
Kushina soon discovered the name of the boy with spiky yellow hair. Namikaze Minato. As she repeated the name mindlessly. Pfftt, becoming Hokage is an impossible dream for a sissy like him. Him and that foolish smile of his.
Days passed, and her embarrassment had not died down. There were still kids who tease her even more mercilessly now. Be it because of karma for underestimating Namikaze Minato or simply just because the kids are plain annoying brats, she did not know. There were about 7 boys surrounding her. "As if a tomato head like you could become a Hokage, everyone hates tomato", sneered one of them.
Minato was talking with his friends and was not aware of the commotion happening at the back of the class. There were also girls that asked him to teach them jutsu as an excuse to make advances at him, and Minato being Minato was too nice to say no especially to a girl's request.
Even at a young age Minato was already popular, having fangirls here and there, and even a few fanboys. He would walk around the village with girls giggling over him. Everyone admits that Minato was the most handsome in the class or even in the whole academy. The fact that he is also a very talented ninja prodigy that is even more superior than Uchiha kids and he has this ever so polite and respectful personality that is almost like a Hyuuga's manner (except that Minato is more flexible and all smiles whereas Hyuugas are more formal and reserved) just made him seem so perfect it was surreal. Both combined, people just never had the heart to tease him (not that he had anything to be teased about, he was perfect, really). He had always been respectful to anyone and never gets upset, and thus in turn, people also found themselves respecting him back.
Kushina quietly growled and tried to suppress her anger as the mockery became more intense. "I never eat tomato in my salad" "Me too" "A tomato that everyone hates could never be accepted as Hokage".
She glanced at Minato, whose head was now turned back watching her, just like everyone else. The commotion had become so noisy that it attracted the whole class' attention. Minato debated with himself whether he should defend her, but he knew that she was strong and was capable of dealing with trivial things like this and standing up for herself.
She grudgingly accepted being called tomato because she herself was painfully aware of her bright red hair, and the fact that her then face that was round with her cheeks still chubby with baby fats did not help her either. The name tomato thus just fit her perfectly. She looked down and bit her lip to hold her anger in, her face getting hotter as she became embaassed, unsure if it was because the kids are teasing him or because Minato was watching.
"Eek, your face is becoming redder and riper! It the tomato festival! Time to harvest!" mocked the boy who harshly grab a handful of Kushina's hair and pulled on it. Kushina cried out pain, and that is left of her self-control. She quickly grabbed the boy's hand and squeezed it strongly and narrowed her eyes at him. "Who are you calling tomato? You listen here, I hate tomato too –ttebane!" she snapped and her tone was deadly, scaring those that were bullying her.
Kushina then spun him around, hitting those deserving kids and send them flying, before throwing the boy's back on the floor. Said boy tried to run away but she straddled him and repeatedly hitting his head while saying "Keep calling me tomato and you're going to get it –ttebane!" as the boy wailed in pain with every hit he took from her. She heard some laughters and quickly look at the source of the sound. Minato and his friends were laughing at them.
"What are you laughing at?!" Kushina spat bringing up her fist. She could see Minato jumped in shock apparently and he quickly shut his mouth and turned his head away in fear. Of course, the polite Minato was not laughing at Kushina. He just thought that the way the boy who kept bullying her wailed for his mommy is funny.
Girls are soft, but when they are furious, they could be even scarier than a deadly shinobi enemy. At least that's what he thinks. As much as a ninja prodigy he was, he just did not dare being the centre of a girl's wrath. He was skilled, yes. He could take down any girl his age, yes. However, he was also an absolute gentleman and a sweetheart that would never go up against a girl, unless it is an enemy in battlefield. Even if he was to spar with girls, he usually goes easy on them, never throwing a direct blow. He slowly peered at Kushina to see if her fury was still directed at him but she looked away in what seemed to be disappointment.
True that Kushina could beat up the boys into smashed tomatoes but she was still a girl, and deep deep down in her heart she also wanted a prince charming to save the damsel in distress. However, of course as a tomboy she was she would bury that feeling as she thought only weaklings need help for something trivial like this. She would become strong and she needed to put aside sissy feelings like this because it would weaken her. She would become a Hokage.