Intermission 4
- a love story in bits and pieces -
Kushina is actually quite good at making seals, Minato finds out. Prodigious, even. Her control of basic chakra manipulation leaves a whole country-sized space for improvement, but as far drawing and executing seals go, the young kunoichi can best Minato (and maybe even her own sensei) at performing a range of complicated procedures.
He is pleased to find out that she makes an amazing conversation partner, once she sizes you up and determines you're not a sissy, a flake, or hopelessly too average for her taste. They often end up discussing techniques after sparring, and Kushina's attitude improves markedly after a loss once Minato engages her in a discussion about cool new jutsu he's been working on.
When they get to the topic of chakra flow, Kushina's eyes gleam and she talks animatedly about seals and chakra combinations that Minato is pretty sure even Hyuga Hizashi would have little clue about. He's impressed, and digs deeper into her core of knowledge, as eager to listen and learn as Kushina is to share.
When they get to the topic of fuinjutsu, one day, Kushina clams up without warning, and Minato watches as her brows knit together.
Being the patient boy he is, Minato wisely steps off the subject until she's ready.
Kushina's dreams (ahem, nightmares) don't end.
Instead, they get more intense, and some turn into sagas, with nightly sequels.
Dream-Minato always calls her by her name now, and often calls her by her first name "Kushina", instead of the respectful "Uzumaki-san".
He still tells her she's strong and brave and he loves her for it, etc, etc.
Real-Kushina wants to break down and scream that she's not, not anymore.
She's become a stupid, lovestruck girl, and she doesn't want them to get any closer than this because they're rivals, damnit, and she had thought her plan would work.
It scares the crap out of Kushina when Minato invites her to go eat ramen after their sparring session.
It's been exactly four months since they started this whole thing, and she's been battling inner "demons" almost nightly. On particularly bad nights, she wakes up, face flushed, and vows to hit Minato particularly hard that coming day, to demonstrate that she still can, thank you very much.
But she has never refused ramen before, and she sees no reason to refuse a good friend and rival (that's all he is, that's all he is). Even if her heart thumps in her ears all the way to Ichiraku's new ramen stand, she imagines that the taste of warm noodle broth is enough to wash away any intentions of romance Minato might have toward her as well.
She's fairly sure that her plan to distract him from fulfilling his Prince Charming act has worked. She knows Minato sees her as a sort of rival now, if you counted the numerous sparring matches, the late night talks about their futures as shinobi.
All is going well, and Kushina has finished her second bowl, asking for a third, when she realizes with a jolt that she didn't bring any money with her.
Minato is calm and smiles gently at her (the one that makes Kushina want to punch both him and herself for going jelly-kneed) before offering to pay for both of them.
Oh no. Ohnoohnoohno.
Kushina smacks the table, hard, before announcing that after their sparring match tomorrow, they would go for ramen again and she would sure as hell pay him back, 'ttebane.
Secretly, she's pleased at this development. Salt ramen and Minato are two of her favorite things, though she'd rather knock out her own front teeth than admit the latter.