2

The Red Spark of Fate

A few days after Mito's passing was when Kushina started attending the Hidden Leaf Ninja Academy and Tetsuya was getting adjusted to a new life in a different village. Before Kushina left the house they were living in which was on the outskirts of the village Tetsuya had approached her saying, "Kushina please have a good day today and don't worry about me I'll be fine. Enjoy your first day at the academy ok I love you." Then she replied back while facing the door, "Ok I will but if I hear that you're causing any trouble then I will give you a royal beat down Tetsuya you know. Just kidding and have a good day as well. Also I love you too little brother." So with that Tetsuya had left the house to head to the playground area of the Hidden Leaf village to see if he could make any friends just to wait for his sister to get done with her first day at the Academy. A few hours pass by and the bell rang to signal the end of Academy classes for the day so Tetsuya hurries to reach the Academy entrance to greet Kushina but he gets ambushed by a couple of bullies. The bullies taunted poor Tetsuya for the way he looked especially his hair by comparing it to a tomato and then he starts crying to say, "Please stop making fun of me. I beg you and maybe I won't tell my sister on you guys." So the bullies then said back to him, "Like nobody's coming to save you now so let's get him." Then the bullies started to pounce on Tetsuya until a flash of somebody's presence appearing right in front of him.

This presence took on a form of a boy with yellow spiked hair wearing a jacket who looked about the same age as Kushina. "Stop what you are doing right now or I'll report this to the instructors on what you just did to this poor person." The boy said in a courageous attitude towards the bullies that were picking on Tetsuya. So the bullies ran off and Tetsuya got back on his feet with a smile on his face. Then Tetsuya thanked the young boy for saving him from the bullies and eventually had asked him, "What's your name may I ask?" In response the boy said, "My name is Minato Namikaze." So Tetsuya said in a pleasing tone, "That is a nice name Minato well my name is Tetsuya Uzumaki nice to meet you." Then Minato had been looking at the entrance to the academy grounds and he then said to Tetsuya, "I was wondering because there is a new girl in my class at the Academy who happens to be in the same clan as you and is she related to you." Tetsuya said in a gleaming tone, "Yes she is my big sister Kushina and most of the time she usually protects me from any danger." After realizing that Tetsuya is Kushina's little brother, Minato then starting to feel anxious and headed towards the forest that was near the outskirts of the village. Then Minato said to Tetsuya, "Do you want to play in the forest that is not far from here?" So Tetsuya said in reply, "Sure I will since the forest that you are talking about is not far from where I live." From that very moment on Tetsuya had found a bonding friendship in Minato because they were talking about life is like in the village. Once they had reached the forest there was something very suspicious going on that was very concerning to the new friends and they jumped to a tree branch to hide to see what was going on.

Suddenly both Minato and Tetsuya see a familiar face looking towards the sky in their direction. Then realizing who it was Tetsuya jumped down from the branch running towards the person as Minato looked on with still a concerned look on his face. It turned out be Kushina who was staring at both Tetsuya and Minato in the forest. She seemed very upset about something in which gravely concerned Tetsuya because he had sensed the problem when he got off the branch. "Kushina what's wrong?" Tetsuya said with a concerned look on his face. "Well I was giving a beat down on some bullies because they were calling me an outsider and making fun of my hair in which I did not like to hear you know. You brought him here too didn't you Tetsuya." Kushina said still in an angry mood. Then Tetsuya said in a calm manner, "No it's not like that you see I came into the forest with him because we wanted to play in here." After hearing all of the conversation Kushina who was still a little upset said to her brother, "Why didn't you help me then Tetsuya huh is it because you think I'm an outsider too?" Suddenly a tear started to flow down Tetsuya's eyes as he felt really sad and hurt on the inside in response to what Kushina said. Then Tetsuya responded as he was struggling to hold back the tears saying, "I don't think you are an outsider at all Kushina because not only you're my sister and I love you very much. Please don't take it out on me you see this is the second time today I have been hurt by somebody." Kushina then felt sorry for taking her frustrations out on Tetsuya and he then explained to her on how he got ambushed by the bullies with Minato saving him. Then Kushina said in response to all of this by saying, "Tetsuya at any time you know I can squash those bullies who hurt you and also I am sorry for making you upset." So Tetsuya felt a lot better after he gave Kushina a hug and put a smile on his face.

A couple of years went by with Tetsuya being enrolled in the Ninja Academy and Kushina now a genin in the Hidden Leaf village during a Great Ninja War against the Hidden Cloud village. Then suddenly out of nowhere on a calm day Kushina gets abducted by three ninjas from the Cloud village for the purpose to use the Nine-Tails as a weapon. Upon leaving the Academy for the day the Third Hokage tells Tetsuya to come to his office and notified him about what had happened. So Tetsuya is suddenly felt terrified that his sister was kidnapped and that is when an old friend walks into the Hokage's office who turned out to be Minato. Then Minato said to both the Third Hokage and Tetsuya, "I will go and bring Kushina back to the village." The Third Hokage granted Minato permission to have the mission to rescue Kushina and then telling Tetsuya, "You are going to be watched by me and my wife, Biwako until your sister returns here to the village." Tetsuya agreed to this because he often liked to help Biwako out on some duties after Academy classes got done and training exercises were done with on most days when Kushina was away on missions. Before Minato left the village to go on his mission Tetsuya stops him and asks Minato, "You really care about her don't you Minato and that's why you took this mission am I right." Then Minato responded in a nervous but calm matter, "Yes I do care about your sister so much that I don't want to lose her and also her hair is beautiful as well." Suddenly Tetsuya had felt really happy that there was somebody who deeply cared about Kushina and it ended up being his best friend. So Tetsuya said in response before heading towards the Hokage's Estate, "Good luck and go after her because you really love Kushina. I'll be waiting for the both of you at the Hokage Estate when you get back. Don't forget Minato to tell her how you feel ok." Upon arriving the estate Lady Biwako greets Tetsuya with a hello as she was expecting him to come over. A few hours pass by with Tetsuya looking outside the window of the Hokage's office and he then sees two people approaching the estate. He then tells Lord Hokage to look outside at the two people carrying each other to the office. The office door had opened to reveal that Minato had safely brought Kushina back to the Leaf Village. There was a smile on both Minato and Kushina's faces once they entered the room which made Tetsuya very happy that his sister was brought back safely. This memory also became known as the Red Spark of Fate which was the most valuable memory Tetsuya had kept for all of these years since. That was on Tetsuya's mind as he approached to a familiar site that he has not seen in a very long time being the entrance gate to the Hidden Leaf Village.