Kushina was going to ring that old man's neck, no joke this time. How dare he trick her into this 'mission'. It wasn't even a real mission, it was a date! The Hokage had set her up on a date with some giant Daimyo who was sickeningly in love with the idea of her.
She shivered as she thought back on the 'mission'. He was the Daimyo of the Land of Noodles and apparently thought it was romantic to break out into song in dance every few minutes. He had also insisted on showering her with roses while his servants played music. She had just barely held herself together through the whole catastrophe and had finally snapped at the conclusion when he had tried to stick his tongue down her throat.
She shuddered as she thought of the Daimyo, whose name she didn't even bother to learn, leaned in for his goodnight kiss. She had been so horrified she had frozen and had almost been violated if her fist hadn't reacted of its own accord and slugged the man.
The marched up the stairs of the Hokage's tower and received several odd looks from her fellow ninja's but paid attention to none. Her mind was focused on one thing and one thing alone. She was going to kill the old man, treason be damned.
XxX
Minato wasn't in a good mood. Today had been his first free day since he had been sent to rescue Kushina. He had searched all over town for her and eventually saw her going into a movie theater with a large man whose attire was adorned with rhinestones and fringe. He had been about to call out to her when something struck him.
She was on a date with the fat man.
He had immediately retreated feeling sick. So that was the kind of man she liked, rich. No wonder she didn't hound him like most of the other girls in the village. She didn't really seem the type to be materialistic though. Maybe the fat man had asked her on a date and she had too kind a heart to tell him know.
Minato's memory flashed back to when he saw Jiraiya with a black eye, curtsy of Kushina. He was pretty sure if she didn't want to do something she would tell that person flat out.
He had been so desperate he had been on the verge of asking his sensei for advice. Luckily an ANBU had told him that the Hokage had an important mission for him and to report to his office at once. Minato thanked the Hokage silently for the distraction as he made his way to the tower.
When he arrived he found the Hokage smoking on his pipe, the same one that he occasionally saw Jiraiya smoking on. He hoped he would never own a pipe to smoke.
"Ah Minato, you're here." He said standing up from his desk and walking to one of the any windows in the office.
"I was told you had a mission for me?" He said.
"Yes, a b-ranked mission that could possibly turn into an a-ranked mission." Minato saw the Third cringe a little as he saw something out of his window. "I need you to contain Kushina Uzumaki and keep her from me until she cools down." He said.
He blinked. "Excuse me?" he said, clearly he had heard wrong.
"She will be here on a moment, I need you to keep her away from me until she has calmed down from her latest mission." He repeated.
He was about to ask why he would need to keep her prisoner when suddenly the door was kicked in. there stood Kushina in all her rage and fury, on instinct he took a step back. Luckily, or unluckily, he wasn't sure, she didn't appear to see him as she pointed one finger at the Hokage.
"You pimped me out old man." She said, venom dripping from every word.
Minato raised his eyebrows and turned to look at the Third who was calm as ever. "I did not pimp you out, it was an escort mission and the Daimyo specifically requested you as his body guard." He said before taking another puff on his pipe. He could practically feel the killing intent rolling off her in waves.
"A hired escort to dinner and a movie is called a prostitute old man." She said. The eerie calm in her voice was sending shivers down Manito's skin. But in the back of his mind he was happy that she didn't have romantic feelings for the fat man he had seen her with earlier.
"Now Kushina," The Hokage started but didn't finish as Kushina launched herself at him.
Minato used every ounce of his speed to intercept the furious red headed woman before she reached their leader. She was a lot faster than she looked that was for sure. He just managed to grab her around the waist four feet from the Hokage and pull her back. He struggled to keep her in his grip but she thrashed around so wildly it was hard.
"Do you see what I mean now?" the Hokage asked dryly. Minato just nodded as he tightened his arms around her waist and drug her out of the door.
He struggled down the stairs of the tower and decided that she was also a lot stronger then she looked too. He had finally reached the bottom step when he had the bright idea to tie her up, some genius he was. He pushed her to the ground and sat on her back while he retrieved his supply of steel thread from his pack. He was almost tempted to knock her out but decided against it. It took longer than it should have but eventually she had been bound and gagged after some rather rude remarks on her part.
He slung her over his shoulder and walked away from the tower wondering what he should do with her now. He had this sinking suspicion that he should avoid Jiraiya at all costs while he had Kushina bound and gagged. Minato could almost hear his perverted sensei rolling with laughter and the innuendos would be unbearable.
He was actually kind of hungry; he had planned on trying to ask Kushina if she wanted to go out for ramen. He wasn't totally sure he would have worked up the courage to actually ask her but finally getting the idea into his mind was half the battle as Jiraiya liked to say.
"Hey are you hungry?" he asked.
Her answer consisted of muffled words that he couldn't discern, probably due to the tape over her mouth. He took a detour off to an ally to avoid the questioning looks some of the villagers were giving him. He set her down on the ground and squatted down in front of her before peeling the tape off.
She was glaring at him through narrowed eyes and had her lips set in a firm line. He couldn't help smiling when she looked like a petulant child. "So how about it, are you hungry?" he asked trying to remind himself that this was technically a mission so he shouldn't be nervous.
"No." she said flatly right before her stomach growled.
"How does ramen sound?" he asked preferring to take her stomachs answer over the one her mouth gave.
She raised an eyebrow in obvious interest causing his smile to grow. "Can you at least untie me?" she asked.
"Are you going to run away?"
"Not before I eat some ramen." She answered truthfully. He smiled and placed a seal on her shoulder that would allow him to transport to her in an instant no matter where she was. He then untied her and rewound the thread around the spool before putting it back in his pack.
They exited the ally and headed for the only ramen stand in the village. They turned a corner and Minato's worst nightmare came to life. There, not five feet away, were five of his most aggressive groupies. He stopped dead in his tracks and grabbed Kushina's wrist.
"What are you doing?" she asked lifting her wrist getting ready to pull away.
The girls had originally had their backs to them but when Kushina spoke the all looked in his direction. There was a squeal of excitement that was a few tones off from a sound only dogs could hear. Kushina turned to the girls and was opened her mouth to say something but Minato tightened his grip and pulled her away from the harpies as he ran away.
He wasn't exactly sure how the civilian girls had gotten so fast, probably from chasing him since he was eleven, but it was getting harder and harder to out run them each time. He pulled her through a series of complicated ally's and side streets until he couldn't hear his name and proclamations of love being screeched.
He was about to stop but felt Kushina tug on his arm, nearly dislocating it, into somewhere small and very dark before slamming the door closed. In the dim light he could see her with her ear pressed to the door listening for any signs of the screeching banshee fan club. He had thought they had lost them but then he heard their voices, he couldn't make out what they were saying only that they were there.
After two or three minutes it was clear that the girls thought he was somewhere nearby and had begun to search making it unsafe to leave the space they were in. from what Minato could see it appeared to be a small storage closet, in fact it was hardly three feet long. He knew this because even with his back pressed to the back wall he could reach out with his arms and touch Kushina.
"I don't think they're leaving anytime soon." She whispered in front of him.
"Probably not, they've always been determined." He whispered back.
She turned around and leaned against the door with her arms folded over her chest. "They've done this before?" she asked.
Minato found himself liking the way she whispered and the way it made him smile like an idiot. "Yeah, since my days at the academy." He divulged. "How do you think I got so fast?"
She smiled at that before looking around the tiny room in silence. Minato decided to keep the conversation going and so made the mistake of asking her why she wanted to kill the Hokage.
"Because the Daimyo of the Land of Noodles and the Hokage collaborated together to set me up on a date with that tub of lard." She spat out looking absolutely disgusted.
"Was the date really that bad?" he asked already knowing the answer.
"Ugh, he kept breaking out in song and dance every few minutes. It was awful." She groaned.
Minato's brain was going almost too fast for him to keep up; this may be his only chance to ask her out on a date. "So what could I do to make you spare the Hokage's life?" he asked biting his lip.
She looked up from her shoes at him. "I suppose a warning to not set me up on a date again would suffice." She said casually.
"What'd you have in mind?" he asked. He had noticed that the fan club had left already but wasn't about to draw her attention to it.
She looked up to the ceiling with thought. "Hmm, I don't know." She said.
There was a sudden bang on the door behind Kushina and to her credit she the only noise she made was a gasp before jumping across the space and pressing her back to his chest. They stood there in a tense silence listening for whoever was on the other side of the door. A minute passed with nothing but the heavy silence before he allowed his muscles to relax.
Kushina also relaxed but her relaxation caused him to tense up once again when he realized that she was still pressed into his chest. Why oh why couldn't he have thought about dating before now to work out all the awkwardness of being close to a girl? You'd think being the student of Jiraiya would have helped with this.
Minato was about to see if she still wanted to go for ramen when the door was suddenly flung open and the pale light of the street lamps filled the tiny space. A small woman who looked to be in her late fifties stood there in shock before she let out a scream.
Kushina backed into him even more as the woman began to rant about kids and their disreputable behaviors. She screamed so loud that Minato was pretty sure people would start coming to see the source of the commotion. They needed to get out of there before more rumors were started about them.
Kushina was apparently thinking the same thing as she grabbed a fistful of his jonin vest and pulled him out of the storage closet and passed the old woman screaming about kid's fornication in public. He could feel the blush burning on his face, who would have thought that spending time with this girl could be so hard.
They ran all the way back to their apartments before they finally looked at each other. He saw that her face was just as red as his with embarrassment. She opened her mouth to saw something closed it, shook her head and went into her apartment without saying a word.
He didn't blame her, really what was there to say after being accused of fornicating in public. He followed her lead and retreated to his apartment, he needed a shower, a cold one. He shook his head as he realized he hand had a hot shower in months, ever since meeting her.