Here's number six in The Language of Flowers series, featuring the unforgettable Uzumaki Kushina!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
White jasmine means amiability.
White jasmine snakes up the brick apartment building thirteen-year-old Uzumaki Kushina lives in. Her long straight red hair streams down her back like liquid fire from underneath the black knitted skull cap she's wearing to ward off the cold. She smiles to the receptionist at the desk as she pushes the button on the decrepit old elevator, and hums as it goes up.
Her apartment is on the third of five floors, small, but large enough to hold four people, because it does. She can already hear hustle and bustle coming from inside, the sounds of a television set going off without anyone heeding it, and what sounds like a man and a woman having a friendly argument.
Kushina smiles. It sounds like Tsunade has come over for supper again. The recently promoted chunin digs in the pocket of her jacket for the keys, but someone on the other side is opening the door.
Minato smiles at her. "Jiraiya-sensei said you'd be back soon with the soda."
Kushina blushingly smiles. Minato is sixteen, a jonin of six months, and one of the three men she shares an apartment with. "Thanks, Minato-kun!" She edges around her housemate and heads towards the kitchen.
"'Bout time," Jiraiya greets her, looking up from the pot of noodles boiling on the stove. "Got the soda?" He is balancing two cookbooks, one in each hand, and has a spatula clenched in his teeth.
"Yes." Kushina giggles at how ridiculous her sensei looks, before putting down the soda and clearing off an area of the island so she can gently take one of the cookbooks out of Jiraiya's hands.
"Thanks, Kushina-chan. Someone seemed to think this was funny." Jiraiya glares at the glossy platinum blonde head of hair poking out from behind the easy chair.
"It was a good look for you, Jiraiya," Tsunade sleekly retorts, not looking up from the TV. Kushina's younger twin brother Arashi is sitting on the couch by Minato; she can hear the crunch of popcorn, smell it's warm, buttery, golden scent. "There was finally something to stop that mouth of yours."
Jiraiya's face flushes red; Kushina can't tell if he's embarrassed or furious. Tsunade seems to have the quality of utterly robbing Jiraiya of any eloquence he happens to possess at the moment.
"Come sit over here with me, Kushina," Tsunade calls, waving a hand.
Kushina discards her skull cap and jacket. Tsunade inches over on the large easy chair, patting the area she's cleared off.
The red-haired chunin squeezes in to the area Tsunade's cleared off. The older woman laughs slightly.
"So, has the pervert graduated to harassment yet?" Tsunade asks almost casually, her golden brown eyes keen and penetrating.
Kushina can't resist a giggle. Tsunade asks questions along these lines every time she comes. "Of course not, Tsunade-san. What gives you that idea?"
Tsunade snorts indelicately. "Because you're a pretty girl and he's a pervert."
"For the last time, Tsunade! I prefer grown women! Grown!!!"
The blonde medical nin rolls her eyes. "So what? Kushina has to wait until she's seventeen to start worrying?"
"NO!!" Jiraiya sounds genuinely shocked. "For God's sake, Tsunade, I don't look at her like that!"
"Yeah, sure," Tsunade mutters. She turns her attention back to Kushina. "Well, if he ever does bother you, let me know. We girls have to stick together, after all."
"Alright." Kushina already knows that she doesn't have anything to worry about.
She looks out the window and sees that even across it the white jasmine grows.
This is the first thing I've ever done for Kushina. It wouldn't feel right if I didn't do a Language of Flowers oneshot for Kushina, and I hope it fits her personality.