Chapter 4 of "I See You" - I'll Stand By You
*Chapter written by sistersgrimmlover*
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
He had seen Kushina yesterday and she had looked a wreck. Apparently she had been training and studying extra hard for the Chūnin Exams. He himself hadn't bothered to study. Jiraiya had warned against it. His team walked in behind him into the classroom. He saw Kushina sitting with her team, Haruka and Ryo.
"You guys are ready?" asked Akira. Minato glared and so did Amaya. Akira looked at them quizzically.
"Just because you're smart don't forget who graduated from the Academy at age 10, Minato here. And I'm not an idiot" Amaya snapped. She didn't noticed the beautiful red head behind her.
"Are you sure?" asked a voice. Amaya jumped and stared into the green eyes of Kushina. Kushina looked even prettier than last month. Her fell to her waist even in a ponytail now and she was slimmer and a bit more curves, Minato noted. He was pretty sure Akira had noticed it too. She wore a fishnet mesh shirt and a green strapless shirt over it, a short green skirt and shorts underneath. She had on green leather gloves and her bangs fell over her eyebrows.
"Kushina come here" Minato said, on a spur of the moment. She almost instantly obeyed and he sat down. She stood above him.
"What?" asked Kushina, curiously. Minato stared into her eyes for a second, his mind whirring.
"Why did you want to be friends with me? And how do you find me when I'm in the most random places?" Minato asked. He looked at the door. They were still early. The tester wouldn't be there for a while.
"I…uh…God this is embarrassing" said Kushina, turning a deep red. She looked towards the door as if praying for the tester to come. Minato touched the back of her neck and she jerked her head.
"Tell me…now. I need to figure out if I can find you when we go to the Forest of Death" Minato said. Her teammates looked at her quizzically. They obviously had never seen her lose control of her Ryūketsu no me.
"I won't lose control! But if you want to know…you have to promise not to laugh or tease me. Or get any funny ideas or I'll get you" Kushina said, contritely. Minato nodded, not understanding what she was getting on about. Kushina sighed as if she were allowing him a great favor.
"It's not me who finds you. When an Uzumaki meets their…salvation…the eyes mark their chakra. It's like a chakra trail. My chakra recognizes you as belonging to me just as your subconscious claims me as your own. It's all territorial. The Uzumaki were somewhat feral. If someone threatens my territory well…they die. It's very simple" Kushina said, explaining her family heritage. It was something she rarely did. He usually had to coax it out of her. Haruka looked at his teammate.
"Kushina-chan, what do you mean? And how do you know Namikaze? And why do you let him call you, Kushina and not Ryo and I?" demanded Haruka in a rapid tone. Kushina turned her sharp eyes onto him and he shut up instantly.
"I mean that Minato is mine. And mine alone. He belongs to me. I told you about my kekkei genkai. I don't use it because it's dangerous and an Uzumaki or a chakra that it recognizes can only suppress it. It rejected Sakumo-sensei's chakra because he isn't my salvation. Minato is my best friend and my salvation. He's what will save me from become a soulless tool. My kekkei genkai would begin to take over me. My kekkei genkai is roughly, Blood Eyes. I will get a dangerous reputation during the Chūnin Exams in the forest and Minato needs to make sure I stop before I do any serious damage to someone. And, I belong to him, I am his salvation so he is very close to me. You aren't. You are annoying, Haruka" snapped Kushina. She didn't call Haruka, Haruka with familiarity. She called him that out of annoyance and he grimaced.
"Oh…that wasn't nice, Kushina-chan. Hey, Ryo, get over here!" called Haruka, rambunctiously to their quiet teammate. Ryo walked over quietly and then got a look at who they were talking to.
"Hello, I'm Namikaze Min—" Minato said. Ryo cut him off quickly.
"I know who you are. I am Usui Ryo. You're the boy prodigy. I look forward to fighting you. It will be fun beating you" Ryo said, quietly. Amaya, Haruka, and Akira's eyes widened in surprise at the same time. Minato looked at Ryo with a raised eyebrow.
"So, I've met your teammate" Minato said, trying to make a conversation. Ryo nodded.
"Did they introduce themselves?" Ryo asked. Haruka nodded but Kushina said nothing. She was busy glaring at Minato as he touched the back of her neck, as if he were drawing something.
"Why didn't you introduce yourself, Kushina?" demanded Ryo. Kushina smiled to herself and leaned into Minato's side.
"Minato is mine. He's like my pet. I've known him for a while now" Kushina said. Minato looked at her in mock outrage.
"I resent that, Kushina! I'm not a pet…" Minato said. He looked at the door and saw how it was opening. He finished drawing something on the back of Kushina's neck and slapped something on it. She jumped and touched the back of her neck.
"What the hell, Minato?" she demanded. Ryo leaned in to take a look.
"It's a…seal?" Ryo remarked. Minato nodded slowly.
"If your eyes are activated I'll be there. It marks your movements…" Minato said. Kushina nodded and she looked him in the eye.
"If you die, I'll murder you" she whispered. He nodded and they parted ways, their separate teams trailing behind them. They sat down and the man walked into the room. He was young, that much was obvious. He looked to be 17. He had the strong jaw line of Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Hokage.
"I am Sarutobi Ren. I will be testing you today. I will pass out the tests. There are 9 questions on the test. You have thirty minutes to complete your test where then I will ask you one more important question. I have one rule. Do not cheat!" snapped the man. He flung them out and they landed in front of the many teams. Kushina exchanged a glance with Minato and then looked at Misaki and Inomae who were looking around frantically.
Minato looked at Ren who was sitting behind the desk now. He closed his eyes, focusing on Kushina. Suddenly he could feel her jolt as a prescence entered her mind. Minato opened his eyes and realized one eye was seeing through Kushina's mind and the other remained on his paper. Her paper was almost filled.
"We're supposed to cheat…it's why he said so. Let me look at your answers" Minato whispered in her mind. Kushina nodded, infinitesimally. He copied down the answers, absentmindedly.
"How did you get in my mind because I'm slightly disturbed…"Kushina whispered into his mind. Minato jumped slightly as he thought it was a one-way conversation. He realized that was stupid, as he had connected her chakra to his own.
"I connected our chakra with the seal on the back of your neck and your eyes" Minato whispered back. She nodded once again and then the connection broke as she suppressed her chakra. Minato watched the others in the room. Ryo looked as if he were having little trouble. Ken looked like he was having a lot of difficulty. However, he noted some people were in fact cheating. Ren suddenly looked up. Everyone turned their eyes to the their own work.
"Times up!" Ren called. Minato looked at the clock. He hadn't realized how much time he had spent having trouble. Ren walked around taking tests and looked in disappoint at some as they were blank except for a name. He walked to the front and looked at the students.
"Now you have one more question. It's a do or die question. If you fail to answer it correctly you stay a Genin…forever" Ren said. There were murmurs of outrage. Minato saw Kushina grip the table and look down. She looked ready to get up when Minato signaled to Haruka. Haruka got Kushina's attention and pointed at Minato.
"Don't do it" Minato snapped. Kushina settled back down into her seat. Ren smirked at the terrified students.
"If you rather not take the chance, leave now" Ren said. Half of the Genin got up and walked away. Only nine teams remained of the eighteen teams. Ken sat with his team, looking determined. Inoichi, Shikaku, and Chouja were still there as well. Inomae and her team sat steady and so did Misaki and her team. Hiashi and Hizashi were with their separate teams. Ren smiled.
"You guys are good. You have passed on to the next phase of the exams" Ren said. He gave them a thumbs up. Ken shot up.
"Wait! You were bluffing! I didn't answer a single question!" Ken shouted. Ren shrugged and looked down at the tests.
"Only Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina finished the test with all the same answers. All of them were correct but one and even the incorrect one you got the same answer. Out of curiosity how'd you achieve that? You're on the other side of the room" Ren said. Minato exchanged a look with Kushina. They grinned in unison and Kushina brushed her hair over the left side of her neck.
"We can't disclose that information for it might be used against us in the coming exams. Maybe after…let's just say if you get him then you'll find me behind you with my kekkei genkai activated and me ready to mar you. It's the same if it was me" Kushina joked.
"Listen to me…we're not on the same team…but I promise…I'll stand by you. When you look sad and when there are tears in your eyes…come to me and don't be ashamed to cry. You're too strong and you're joking about something that hurts you. I see through you. I'll stand by you, Kushina. And I won't ever desert you…" Minato murmured. And Kushina launched herself into him and hugged him tight.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Next one is coming out soon. Review, follow, & favorite!~