Chapter 10: Tomboy's Confession

Kushina lashed out at the training post like it had insulted her. Her fists and feet slammed into the wood with noisy thumps. It was starting to hurt, but she kept at it. So long as she was training she didn't have to face the world…or him.

Why? She redoubled her pace. Why did he do that? And why did it have to feel so damn good?

With a frustrated snarl she collapsed at the base of the post and rested her sweaty forehead against the rough wood.

Why did he have to kiss me like that? Why does he have to always be so nice, and good, and good-looking? Why does he have to be…him?

"Why, why, why?"

"Why what?"

Kushina yelped, tried to get up, but her sore legs failed her and she fell over backwards onto the dirt. "Don't sneak up on me like that!"

Minato flinched and looked very much like a kicked puppy up on his perch on top of a nearby training post. "Sorry."

She swallowed hard and sat up to pick at the sparse grass on the grounds. "Don't look at me like that," she muttered. "Come here to train?"

"I was thinking about it," he replied awkwardly.

"I'll leave then," she sighed and staggered to her feet. "I was done anyway."

"Wait!" In a flash he was at her side. "Wait! I-I want to talk to you."

She thought about just ditching him, but against her better judgment… "Okay." She leaned back against the post and folded her arms over her chest. "Talk."

"Um…" He took a minute to collect himself, and she almost wanted to laugh to see Konoha's Yellow Flash so nervous over just talking to her. "About…about last night—"

"Don't worry about it. It's already forgotten," she lied.

He blinked. "I… Before you forget entirely, I was hoping to find out just what I did that upset you so much. I don't want to do it ever again." He looked so earnest and apologetic that she had to look away from him.

"You didn't do anything wrong," she mumbled and stared down at the dirt around her sandals.

"But…you were scared," he persisted. "Why?"

"You just surprised me is all," she shrugged. "I knew you were excited about being the next Hokage and all, but excited enough to kiss—" Her voice broke and she had to stop.

Ever since that kiss she'd feared that she'd crossed the point of no return with him; the invisible point that she'd been so wary of where friendship stopped being enough. She'd been so careful, put up a thick wall of friendship… But had he slipped around all that and run off with her heart anyway?

It certainly seemed that way. The damn kiss had set loose a swarm of butterflies in her middle and every time she thought of him—which was much too often—they'd act up. In the shower that morning she found herself fantasizing about the kiss, and kissing him again (and again), and giggling like a little girl. And now that he was right in front her she couldn't talk to him, couldn't even look at him for fear that she'd jump him, break down on him, or both.

"Kushina?"

She snapped her head up to find that he was even closer, barely one foot away. Rumors said that Konoha's Yellow Flash had eyes that were cold as ice and able to look into your soul. Kushina agreed about the looking into your soul part, but his eyes were never cold, not when he looked at her. Her knees felt like jelly and the damned butterflies were freaking out in her guts.

"What's wrong?"

"Let's just stay friends," she whispered hoarsely, desperately.

His eyebrows went up. "You're open to more than that?"

"That's not what I said," she gulped, her face starting to burn.

"But are you?" He sounded…hopeful.

She shook her head. "It won't work out. I'm not dateable material. Not…not for a future Hokage anyway."

"What?"

"Just…" She shook her head and tried to slip around him, but he put his hand on the post, blocking her escape with his arm.

"Please," he begged. "I just… I want to understand why…"

"Why what?"

His free hand slid under her chin and forced her to look him in the eye. "Why you think that?"

God, why does he have to be so disgustingly romantic now, of all times?! "You thought I was a boy," was all she could manage.

He blinked. "That was…years ago. I'd have to be blind and an idiot to make that mistake now."

"Well, you are an idiot," she jabbed, more out of reflex than anything. She swallowed hard. "What changed?" she whispered. "What makes me stand out from the dozens of little fan-girls that drool over you?"

"For one, you're not one of the fan-girls," he shuddered. "And for another, you're pretty smart, and you're a good fighter, and you make me laugh, and you're my friend, and you don't inflate my ego or hang out with me because I'm so famous, and…" As he rambled on he started to blush. "And you're…very, very pretty." Now he was really blushing and his eyes nervously darted away from her face. "And…I really liked kissing you," he finished, almost whispering.

Kushina felt her heart stop for a good minute. "How many girls have you kissed?"

"One," he replied, shifting anxiously. "You."

She tried her best to melt into the training post that she was practically pinned against. "Just me?"

"Well," he scratched at the back of his head, "Akanami Chihiro would disagree, but I don't count it."

"Oh?" She raised an eyebrow that demanded an answer.

"When I was eleven, she tried and fell on me in class. She barely got my mouth, it lasted about two seconds, and I didn't enjoy it at all." He shivered. "She wouldn't stop talking about it or the rest of the year."

Kushina couldn't help but laugh.

"Huh," Minato grumbled. "What about you? How many guys have you kissed?"

"Barring kisses that were part of missions—which were always with pervy old creeps or pervy young creeps—just one guy." She studied the stitching on his vest before glancing up at his tense expression. "Just you."

Minato's face lit up with a blinding smile. But his grin faded as he voiced a question. "Haven't any other boys tried to kiss you?"

"Outside of missions? Sure," she shrugged. "I kindly introduced my knee to their groins."

He cringed and paled a little. "Why?"

"I didn't really know any of them well, and it was obvious that they just saw a decently pretty girl with boobs and wanted to try and score."

"Oh." He moved a tad bit closer and kept opening his mouth like he was going to ask her something, but no words came out.

She sighed, "Just ask."

"I…can I kiss you again…please?"

She wanted to tell him no, but her mouth refused to work. The first kiss had been a horrible, wonderful mistake. A second kiss would doom her, she just knew it. So she just stared mutely at the dirt under her feet.

"…I guess that's a no." There was to sound of scuffing sandals and she looked up to see his retreating back. "I've got to go. I'll see you around."

As a young girl she'd been impulsive. She said what she thought without really thinking about it and always acted on her first instinct. Time, maturity, and hard experience had taught her caution and how to think things through…some of the time.

Minato barely got five steps away before she tackled him from behind, wrapping her arms around his middle and burying her face into his back.

"Kushina—"

"When we were genin I got this horrible crush on you!" she blurted out. "I hated every second of it, because it was such a girly thing—to have a crush on a boy. And girls were all sissies and pushovers and weaklings and I didn't want to be like that at all. It was weird and it freaked me out so I ended up being extra nasty to you and I'm sorry!"

There was a long pause. "You had a crush on me…when we were genin?!"

"Yeah," she mumbled.

Another pause. "Really?"

"Really," she grumbled.

"But…you hated me."

"I told you that I didn't hate you, you just annoyed me…because you were so awesome…and cute."

He let out a startled chuckle and twisted around so that she was hugging his chest instead of his back and returned the embrace. "Just cute?" he muttered as if insulted. "Not handsome?"

"Yeah," she grinned. "I suppose you have your handsome moments, but mostly you're just cute."

"Hmph," he snorted into her hair and she shivered at the sensation. "Well, speaking of when we were genin, I remember this one time that you were making fun of my ambitions, and you promised to do something if I achieved them."

Kushina's mind raced as she tried to recall the incident that he was referring to. Their genin days were a long time ago and while some events stood out clear in her mind (most notably their parting when she punched him) most were just fuzzy snapshots and snippets of conversations. This particular event seemed to be one of the vaguer ones in her mind.

"Refresh my memory, please."

"You swore that the day that I made Hokage you would pledge your undying love to me," he cheerfully informed her.

"And then you fell on your face," she snickered as the event in question finally snapped into focus for her. That was hilarious!—oh wait…

"That was back when I thought you were a boy," he huffed. "The idea of a boy proclaiming love to me was…not appealing."

She couldn't help but laugh at that idea. "Hey, it could happen," she snickered. "I'm sure that you have a few male fans out there, Yellow Flash!"

"Please don't say things like that!" he grumbled. Minato eased her away from his chest so that he could look at her face. "Now that I'm going to be the next Hokage, what are you going to do?"

Kushina swallowed hard and slipped out of his arms to put some space between them. Although his tone was light and joking, she knew that he was asking a serious question and he wanted a serious answer. Unconsciously she mirrored her posture from the night before: her back to him and her arms hugging herself as if she were cold.

"I'm not pledging you anything, Namikaze—"

She didn't have to face him to "see" the hope drain out of him. The justifications that she armored herself with suddenly felt thin and her heart ached. She was horribly torn until one side abruptly gave out.

"—because you're not Hokage yet, dork. You're just in-training to be Hokage. The day that you get that silly Hokage hat for keeps is the day that you hear any sort of pledge from me." She glanced over her shoulder to watch Minato in the process of un-wilting and smiled faintly. "In the meantime though…I suppose I can let you kiss me."

Minato's smile briefly outshone the sun.