Inconsistencies

Evanescent Luminaire

Disclaimer: I do not hold any legal rights to the Naruto series.

Summary: Inconsistent. Because that's actually how some of the best days we have are. Kushina/Minato.

Notes: Kushina and Minato are 15 and 17 respectively… Fun fact: It's coincidentally Kushina's birthday on July 10th! That was totally unplanned. But quite awesome.

The early morning sunrise gently greeted the peaceful land of Konoha as life wove its way through the prosperous village. It stretched over from the Uchihas' sector of the village, where some of the inhabitants could be seen trudging to and from their police headquarters; through the central village, where civilians were setting up shop; and finally to the Hokage tower, were the Sandaime himself could be seen admiring the view from the rooftop, pipe in hand.

As the Third observed the silent harmony taking place in the village, he suddenly had the inexplicable notion that something was amiss there. And after contemplating about it for several moments, he could only come up with one explanation. However, before that conclusion had been completely formulated in his mind, a loud breach of disturbance - in the form of a string of crude words a young woman should really have no knowledge of - unsettled the quiet harmony which had presided over the village.

The Sandaime sighed, and looked up at the sky. It was only seven in the morning. And soon enough again, the source of the voice, though considerably further away than the last time it had sounded, now only seemed to be amplified to an outrageous degree.

"GET OUT OF MY WAY!"

Sarutobi chuckled quietly to himself, blowing wisps of smoke into the air as he retreated back down into the building. Somehow, the young Uzumaki girl had managed to fill whatever energy the village had seemed to lack in its quiet hours. A wary look found its way onto the Third's face - now he was just worried about whomever her boisterous attitude was set upon. He hoped in vain that - at the very least - it wouldn't affect the better part of his day.

The village's central market was just beginning to buzz with customers as shopkeepers opened work for the day. This was the second indication to young Uzumaki Kushina that she was, in fact: screwed. The first being that her alarm clock hadn't woken her up on time this morning, and as consequence, it had found itself broken beyond repair and at the top of a pile of its peers (all in similar conditions).

Kushina slipped a short strand of hair behind her ear, and started barreling her way through the teeming masses, all while indiscreetly mumbling some very colorful words under her breath. But as the crowd seemed to get thicker, her words escaped her in increasing volume. And as embarrassing as it may have been to have so many people shoot those strange looks in your direction, Kushina couldn't find the heart to care. Besides, with all of the startled stares, people would simply dart out of her way, quite frankly afraid of the red-haired young girl.

She headed toward the training grounds, and finally came across the one that she had wanted so badly to reserve for herself that day. And when she didn't see anybody occupying the immediate vicinity, her hopes sky-rocketed. As she made her way over to the three wooden poles in the clearing, a smile made its way onto her face.

"Maybe what that dork Namikaze said yesterday was only to pick at my skin," she said derisively, as she recalled his words, coupled with that easy-going demeanor he always seemed to emit.

If you beat me to the training grounds tomorrow morning, I'll let you have it to yourself for the rest of the week. But if I beat you first, you have to train with me.

Kushina had agreed to the reasonable terms, only because the two of them had been fighting over the damn training spot so stubbornly for the past few weeks, that even she was starting to see how tedious their arguments were becoming.

She sighed; okay, well maybe she was the only one who was stubborn in their arguments, which she grudgingly admitted to herself, were almost completely one-sided. But! If the boy didn't seem to care so much about the training ground in question, then why in the world was he always occupying it whenever she came around?!

She was convinced that it was just a ploy to annoy her or get back at her for some prank she may have pulled on him in the past, but… as she looked around and didn't see any hint of his blue eyes or a flash of his bright yellow hair or even the white of his smile, she concluded:

"I WON! WOOHOO!!"

She threw her hands into the air in victory, when something fell out of a tree, and landed on the ground with an unsteady thump. Startled, the Chunin looked over at the fallen object, only to see Minato sitting at the base of the tree, bright blue eyes gazing up into her shocked face.

"Uzumaki-san," he greeted with a smile. His blond hair fell messily into his eyes, as he looked up at her.

Kushina was almost at a complete loss for words. Almost. "What the hell, Namikaze?! What were you doing up there?"

"Winning," he replied, dropping his smile and replacing it with what Kushina took as a 'it's-very-obvious' look.

She held back a snort, "What are you talking about? I got here first." She sneered down at him, knowing very well this was only possible to do when he was sitting. He was just about five inches taller than her, had he been standing. "Just because you dropped out of a tree doesn't mean I'll believe that you…" the red-haired girl stopped talking when the young Jounin decided to stand up and casually stretch his long limbs. He looked as though he hadn't been listening to a word she had said.

When he finally did look at her, it was with an air of amusement. "So how long have I been a dork, Uzumaki-san?"

She groaned inwardly - he had heard her. Ah, damn it all. He freaking won. "Fine, fine, Namikaze. You win!" She crossed her arms, unsettled by his blank gaze. "Happy?"

"Quite." He gave a smile, but Kushina could've sworn she saw the scorn hidden beneath it. This man… should never be underestimated.

"Should we train now, Uzumaki-san?" His tone was polite, but something about the way he kept addressing her pissed her off. And so of course, she snapped at him.

"Stop calling me that! Uzumaki-san is my dad, Namikaze." She stressed her dislike of the title, which had nothing to do with the name itself, or anything close to that. But hearing herself being addressed that way by him just felt a bit… off.

"Kushina-san, then?" he offered, with a grin.

"Drop the honorific, Namikaze," she all but growled at him.

"Kushina."

At the sound of her name, it took an enormous amount of willpower to fight the blush that crept onto the tomboyish girl's face. But even that must not have been enough, because after taking one glance at her face contorted in concentration, Minato had burst out laughing.

To save face, Kushina knew that she would have to come up with a witty remark.

"Er, yeah - the-that's………whatever," she mumbled intelligently, walking back toward the training posts, leading a chuckling Jounin in her wake.

Now the girl in question wasn't entirely sure which of the two names she found more unsettling.

At Kushina's insistence, the two had trained until noon, when they retired for lunch, after which the two had planned to head their separate ways: for missions in Minato's case, and spending the day doing nothing in particular, in Kushina's. As Kushina started off toward the village in search of a ramen stand, she suddenly felt Minato's presence next to her. She gave him a 'What do you want now?' sort of stare, all without breaking her pace, but her company didn't seem to take any notice.

Instead, he asked in a cheerful tone, "Where do you want to go to eat, Kushina?"

The girl had planned on stopping dead in her tracks as she shot him a glare, knowing that he was enjoying saying her name a tad bit too much, but her legs were too tired from training to immediately follow her spontaneous decision, and so they buckled under her. The blond-haired bastard did absolutely nothing to help prevent it either, although she was sure that he had every chance in the world, and that only intensified her glare as she got back up, dusting herself off.

"Are you okay?" He asked, clearly holding in his laughter, and the red-haired girl only walked past him in reply.

He easily caught up with her, and studied her face from the side. Regardless of what many people said, and even to his own belief, the tomboy was actually starting to look like… a girl. Having been a couple of years older than the girl, he had had a feeling in his youth where he had grudgingly admitted that she might just end up turning heads one day; but at the time when he first made that insightful observation, he had been at that age where he hadn't really cared as much about girls as he did about what sort of weapons would be most effective with his fighting style, and how many of them he could effectively fit into his pouches and on his person.

But the hormones caught up with him eventually, as he started noticing exactly what lured his sensei to his irrational persistence with the opposite sex - albeit from a safer distance, and in a less perverted manner than his sensei could ever vouch for. Minato had even begun to take notice when girls his age gave him appreciative looks as he approached them - and even more openly appreciative looks when he left them. But still, none of the girls in the village had seemed to catch his attention, or much less leave an impression on him except for this one girl from the fallen Land of Whirlpool, who he was convinced had some sort of an identity crisis.

He sighed, as he often did whenever he was around her, and thought how ironic it was that while he may have been able to easily woo almost any girl which showed the least bit of interest in him, he had somehow managed to find himself drawn to the one girl who almost blatantly refused to see boys as anything more than sparring partners, teammates, or friends. And while that could have been a charming asset to her personality, to Minato in all of his adolescent glory, it was borderline frustrating at times.

But he was persevering, he believed, like an adult. And he was going to wait for her to finally kick her boys-are-only-friends resolution to the curb… and if that meant speeding up the process through deceptive tactics (such as the one he used today), then so be it - this was where being a ninja, and a good one at that, could actually help one out on a day-to-day, month-to-month, year-to-year basis. Minato sighed again, taking another glance his company. He just hoped that it wouldn't take him years to help her change her mind.

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When Kushina stopped walking, and rounded on her newfound sparring partner, said older boy almost ran straight into her. Looking at his face, Kushina scowled slightly, wrinkling the gap between her brows, and cocked her head to the side. A hand shot up to her hair and she almost automatically started twirling her shoulder length red hair around her surprisingly nimble fingers.

"I don't get it…" she mumbled, eyes seemingly scanning for something important on his face. He looked down at her, unimpressed if she was trying to pull a prank or a crude joke over on him. After a moment more of hesitation, Kushina extracted her hand from her own hair, and brought it toward his face, as he looked on in surprise - until she pulled it away and continued on her trek to find a decent ramen stand as though nothing happened. Minato, honestly confused, really wondered if he had just imagined that.

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After having come across the perfect ramen stand, or more accurately, the only ramen stand which served Kushina's favorite Shio Ramen, the pair had a quiet lunch together. At least until Kushina looked over her shoulder and then pointedly at Minato for the third time since they entered the stand. He returned her gaze for the first time.

"Yes, Kushina-san?" He smiled, watching her face scrunch up unsure about how to get him to stop adding an honorific after her name (he probably just did it to irk her, anyway). But she waved that problem aside in order to address him.

"Those girls," she pointed beyond the stall's flaps with a chopstick, sending some of her noodles flying onto the counter and some onto his lap, "have been following us for a while. They've been shooting you looks this whole time." She turned back to her bowl of ramen, not bothering to apologize for the mess she made. "I think," she added, through slurps of ramen, "they wanna do you."

Namikaze Minato choked on his ramen.

The man behind the counter, visibly unsettled by what the young girl had said, hastily pushed a glass of water toward the young man, concerned for the boy. Kushina, also concerned, thumped him hard on his back with her left hand, still slurping up noodles from her half-empty bowl with her right.

After managing two gulps of water, Minato returned the glass, and gave an apologetic Thank you to the cook, paying for both himself and Kushina, as well as leaving a gracious tip, before exiting the stand.

Kushina almost lurched after him, "Oi! Namikaze! Aw, jeez what the hell's up his…" she trailed off her voice carrying from down the street, leaving the ramen stand owner to shake his head in brazen disbelief. What could that poor boy have done to have earned himself the company of such an… outspoken girl? The stand owner shook his balding head, knowledgeably. That young man, no matter how handsome he may be, will never get a decent girlfriend with that red-haired girl constantly at his side.

The young man must have horrible luck.

---------

Halfway down the road, Minato was thinking the same exact thing. Ignoring yells of: "Oi, you!" and "Namikaze, what the hell is your problem?!", Minato turned onto the next street, which happened to be much more deserted than the last. When Kushina finally managed to catch up to him, she half expected him to punish her for saying something out of line - but the problem was, as hard as she racked her brain, she couldn't think of one thing she might have said to upset the blond boy.

When he turned his blue eyes toward her, Kushina almost cringed. He seemed to be looking down at her… in contempt. She hadn't seen him look at her like that since they were kids the first time they met, and he had mistaken her for a very annoying young boy. It sent a cold shiver down her spine, striking her dumbfounded.

In reality, Minato was fighting the urge to pity her, and hold back the urge to scold her for being so dense. He then sighed and placed a hand over his face, and mumbled more to himself than her, echoing what she had said earlier that day. "I don't get it…" Glancing back at her, he noticed how her brows were starting to furrow in confusion again, and he shadowed her earlier movements, by reaching out a hand toward her face.

But instead of withdrawing it much like she had, he lightly grabbed the back of her neck and brought her lips up to his in a quick kiss. The taste of their salt and beef ramen meshed together for what was only a quick moment. And the scarlet-haired Chunin barely had any time to react before the blond boy disappeared in a flash, probably heading off to his mission.

---------

Confused, Kushina stood rooted to the spot, not noticing young passersby glance at her with jealousy (for those who had seen the act). And it was only as she had made her way back to her one tenant apartment, did the shock of realization finally set upon her now-blushing face. Her lips were now burning, almost ten minutes after the fact, and she then slowly noticed that they tasted like beef ramen, but one could simply blame it on the poor girl's denseness.

After a few more moments spent in contemplation about what she was going to do, Kushina decided that the best way to ensure that the spiky blond haired ninja didn't get the wrong idea was to… beat it out of him. It wasn't that she didn't (and she would blush furiously at the thought, and knew she would deny it if he ever asked her) enjoy their little kiss, but she just wasn't completely ready to start seeing boys - and much less Minato - as things to be ogled at or liked like that.

And so she spent the rest of her day planning out ways to get back at him when she would see him tomorrow at the training grounds - as she was still obliged to train with him, under the conditions of his win. Speaking of which… Kushina immediately realized that the cunning Jounin hadn't ever mentioned an expiration date to his end of the deal. She smiled incredulously.

"Damn Namikaze…"

Two years later...

A seventeen year old Uzumaki Kushina waited under the shade of a tree on her reserved training grounds. The sun was beating down hard on this fateful day and she didn't feel as though she had the energy to wait it out stubbornly in the heat. Come to think of it, she didn't even know why she was waiting at all. It was very unlike Minato to arrive late, unless he had a mission or had to attend meetings with Jiraiya-sensei, but she would always be informed of that ahead of time. In her boredom, the Uzumaki girl started weeding the grass blades around her, only leaving patches around a cluster of small purple flowers.

By the time she had managed to make out a decent brown patch of dirt outlining one side of her body, a flash of yellow whipped across the training grounds, halting as it reached the shade of the tree. Nineteen year old Namikaze Minato looked down at the girl with fresh grass stains on her hands. He greeted her, "Yo, Kushina."

"I'm not training with you today," she replied quickly looking away from his cheerful grin.

He looked at her in confusion, but didn't say anything, knowing that she must have been going somewhere with this.

"... Unless you can tell me what today is?" Looking up into his clear blue orbs, Kushina realized just how frustrating it could be when his face never betrayed in concealing what he was really thinking or feeling - unlike her own.

"It's the tenth," he replied in his 'it's-a-matter-of-fact' tone. "Your birthday."

Startled, Kushina realized that was not the answer she expected. But... was it really? She never cared to take the effort to keep track of time during the long, draining summer days - especially during Konoha summers which, in her opinion, were astonishingly hotter than any she had ever witnessed in Uzu no Kune.

She got up, brushing stray blades of green and brown grass off her dress (not baggy shorts), and faced him, hand on hip. "Yes, you're right." A small smile tugged at the corners of his mouth in a silent victory, but that was as far as Kushina decided to let his ego go. "But that's the wrong answer, Namikaze," she gloated, happy for once at his unreadable expression.

"Two years ago." She stated, wondering if he would see where she was going with this. "Do you remember what you did?"

A thoughtful look fell over his face at the mention of 'two years ago', but he honestly couldn't recall the instance to which she was referring to. He only snapped out of his musing when he realized that a pair of purposeful green eyes and long strands of red hair blocked his view of the three wooden poles. Kushina was standing close to him, very close. Their noses were actually near to touching, when she slyly asked him if he would mind if she took the chance to remind him. But Minato barely had the time to reply (although he had all the time in the world to move or evade her approach) before her lips found his in a hasty kiss.

Her hand shot up to his spiky yellow hair - and between concentrating on where exactly his tongue was roaming inside her mouth, and taking some pleasure in feeling his hot breath on her face - she took note of how deceptively soft it really was. His left hand subtlety found its way to her small waist and he kept the right one at the back of her neck; partially to hold the girl steady, and partially to make sure that she was in fact there with him. When they broke apart after a few more moments, breathing just a bit heavier than before, a pair of grass green eyes met bright blue ones and then hastily turned away, flipping waist-length red hair in their wake.

Lacing her fingers behind her back, Kushina started to walk away, and the blond young man almost leapt after her, before deciding to wait for her cue. Licking her lips, she smiled back at him, baring teeth as she always did. "At least it didn't taste like beef ramen this time, huh, Minato-kun?"

Author's Note: The ending was for fun. So. What did you think?

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