Chapter 1: Initiation Day.
It was that time of year again. Cherry blossom petals were flying, flowers were blooming, and trees were sprouting leaves. For the new graduates of Konoha's ninja academy it meant a new beginning and finally maturing into what they'd dreamed of becoming: Shinobi of the Leaf. On that morning one could see pre-teen children with bright new forehead protectors hastily making their way to the academy to find out which team they'd been assigned to. Some walked together, others alone, but no one could look more like a lone-wolf than the Red Hot Habanero coldly stomping her way to her destination.
'She's feigning that confident look again,' he thought when he saw her. At first, he'd been intimidated by her when she unexpectedly joined his class at the academy, but after taking a second look he could tell that she really must feel lonely inside, kind of like him.
"Hey! What're you lookin' at?!"
He was startled to realize that he was staring at her lost in thought for maybe too long a time. He couldn't help to look at her, though- he found her fascinating. But that was the way things were, and over the past couple years of being in her class, he learned how long he could get away with gazing at her before she caught him.
"It's... nothing," he averted his eyes from her before adding with a smile, "but good morning, and good luck, Kushina."
The girl blushed, but only so slightly that one would have to look closely to see. Her being taken aback by this however only lasted for a split second when she went back to her previous behavior. "Yeah, well, watch it, Namikaze! Wouldn't wanna get beaten by a girl on your first day of being a shinobi, y'know?" And with that she sprinted into the academy.
Young Minato sighed, expecting this sort of response and entered the building after Kushina.
x
Inside the small lecture hall seemed to be an endless amount of new ninja for Konoha, all of them making the deafening sound of loud, muttled-together conversations, all unable to be distinguished from each other. The chunin overseeing their initiation to genin gave a sigh of exasperation, 'How did I ever get stuck with this job?'
"Alright, alright! Let's settle down, we're shinobi aren't we?" The chunin called out in a voice as loud as he could while still trying to sound peaceful. Once everyone had gotten to their seats, he continued, "Alright, welcome, and congratulations on your transition from academy students to ninja. Today, you'll all be assigned to groups of three with a jonin leader."
There was a pause, and whispers could be heard from the former students. Things like, "I hope we get paired together," "They better not put me on Tomato's team," and "I swear, if our sensei is a creep..." resounded throughout the classroom.
After another sigh, the young chunin sensei called out, "Alright! I'll now begin to announce the teams. Afterwards, you can have lunch and then come back and wait for your jonin leader to arrive so you can form your team." He began to say names that were unimportant to Kushina, which was pretty much every name, except the next group.
"Chokichi Akimichi, Minato Namikaze, and Mikoto Uchiha."
She didn't know much of Chokichi, just that he was from some branch of the Akimichi clan, but that was it. She knew that Minato was the "all-smiles" perfect boy, who wouldn't make it as a ninja at all, let alone Hokage like he dreamed of. And then there was Mikoto, the only person that Kushina had respect for in their class. She didn't take crap from anybody, but she was pleasing, and didn't let her tamper fly off the handle like Kushina. Kushina had been jealous of Mikoto for that, but at the same time wished to be friends with her, since Mikoto had shown kindness to her before, that being letting Kushina copy whatever written homework assignments she had forgotten to do in the academy. Kushina had always secretly wished she could be on Mikoto's team so they could actually become friends, but because of the small amount of female ninja, she knew that was close to impossible. And now that had been confirmed. Now she was graced with waiting to hear whatever people she'd been paired up with.
"Shikuro Aburame, Souma Nohara, and Kushina Uzumaki."
'Ah, fantastic, bug boy and purple stripes. My ideal teammates,' Kushina whined internally.
x
The three of them, Kushina, Shikuro, and Souma, had long finished their lunches and been waiting for their sensei to arrive for nearly an hour, and Kushina had had it. She was already being forced to be partners with people she knew weren't fond of her (she had heard Souma earlier say he didn't want to be paired with "Tomato," which didn't help), and now her sensei was making this awkward situation longer by not showing up.
'This guy deserves to be pummeled. Who the hell does he think he is, y'know?!' thought Kushina as she came up with a classic prank to get her revenge on her sensei. She quickly grabbed an eraser from the chalkboard and opened the classroom door only slightly so that the eraser could snugly fit between the door and the wall. 'Genius,' she revelled in her mischief as she noticed a figure at the doorway and the door beginning to slide open.
The eraser bounced off a head of light gray hair that was pulled back into a ponytail. He looked at his new students, a laughing and potentially stupid red-head, a boy apologizing for the girl's prank, and another boy, obviously an Aburame, not paying attention to any of it.
"Hm. Needs work," he said with a slight smirk at all of them.
x
Their new sensei brought the three genin to a park and had them all sit amongst the trees. This is where they were to get to know each other and become a team.
Kushina didn't know what to think of the man. Of course, she was loathing him for making her wait so long, but that reaction was not what she was expecting. He seemed kind. He didn't seem to really mind that she had just dropped a dusty eraser on his head.
"I'll start us off. My name is Sakumo Hatake. I don't have much time for hobbies, as in my free time I help my wife take care of our two year old son. And I like my family, and being able to protect the village," the sensei explained.
"Alright, my turn!" Kushina spat without hesitation or care for her sensei's description, "I'm Kushina Uzumaki, and I'm gonna be the first female Hokage, y'know! And I like to go to Ichiraku's whenever to eat ramen, y'know!"
"Not like we didn't already know that," Souma muttered under his breath, causing Kushina to shoot over a deathly fox glare toward him.
"Okay, okay, no need to be harsh toward our fellow teammates. Did you want to go, Souma?" Sakumo-sensei responded to conflict.
"Alright, well, I'm Souma Nohara, and I like to work hard and study to become a good shinobi, and I watch my baby sister in my free time, so I'll probably eventually end up teaching her all I know," he chuckled at the last part as if it were a joke, but Kushina could tell that the first part about working hard was meant to be a jab at her.
Lastly went Shikuro, who largely went unnoticed. Sakumo-sensei concluded their first meeting, "It's been nice to meet you all, and tomorrow we'll meet again at 10 o'clock sharp at the training grounds, so make sure you all get your rest." He smiled kindly at the them and poofed away. Next, all three of the teammates began to walk in separate directions, barely doing anything as a sign of goodbye. All that was exchanged were some scowls, hopefully to be fixed the next day.
xxx
Thank you so much for reading this! It's my first time trying to write fanfiction, so I'm sure I'm not very good at it, but I keep these thoughts in my head for a while and I need to release 'em!
So as of just finishing chapter 1, I'm thinking I shouldn't do a long story, just snippits of Kushina's life as a ninja, as well as other characters back then like Mikoto and Minato. And yes, I do care about Mikoto way more than Minato, so she'll be present, because my ultimate headcanon is that Kushina and Mikoto were best friends. Also I kinda hate Minato but that's another thing.
Other things I wanna clarify: Chokichi Akimichi is what I named the kid on the far left in the Team Jiraiya picture. I thought he looked like he could be a part of that clan so I rolled with it. Also, the middle kid in the Team Jiraiya looks like it could either be male or female, so my headcanon is that it's Mikoto (I actually got this headcanon because of someone on deviantart so thank you! It made my heart swell with feels). Then, a headcanon I thought of myself the other night was that Sakumo was Kushina's sensei (though I'm still trying to figure out if that's even possible b/c of timeline issues and whatnot but whatever it's fanfic). It's also kinda challenging coming up with his personality. Basically I'm thinking kinda like Kakashi but more happy since (to our knowledge) he hasn't lost anyone important to him yet. His wife (aka Kakashi's mom) will die eventually, and that's when he'll fall. I also needed to come up with Kushina's teammates. Shikuro Aburame is actually mentioned once in the series but he dies after his son is born, so I figured that could work. Then I made up Souma Nohara completely, and yeah, he's Rin's older brother. Sorry he's kinda a dick, but hey, it's not like I could have him be exactly like Rin and be perfect or something.
But anyway, thanks again for reading and I'll try to update regularly! (but I'll really only feel motivated if I get some reviews, so review!)