(A/N) The Festival! Of course, what's on the mainland is far more expansive, with more stuff for kids and all that. I'm planning a set of oneshots that basically follow Hihana and Choryu as they grow up and see the festival as they grow up. As younger children, older children, teens, adults, and finally as adults with kids. I'll tell you guys when I put it out. If you want any other perspectives, like from people from other branches, just ask, I'll probably agree!
If Minato had been wondering about the amount of pillows and blankets in the main room before, he wasn't any more. Kushina had, for some reason, constructed a massive nest that easily fit all three of them. Unfortunately, it was extremely comfortable, and being in it usually led to sleeping.
Kushina thought it was awesome, Tadaaki and Minato, who were perpetually stressed by nature, thought it less so and avoided it whenever possible.
Minato honestly wasn't sure what Tadaaki was doing every time he was dragged out by Hoshiko, although Tadaaki seemed happy with it, so he left it alone.
He spent a lot of time in the crow's nest, whether quietly napping where Kushina couldn't find him (she could, she just refused to bother him while he was sleeping), or watching out for things.
"Hey Minato," Mitoko said, approaching him. She offered him a large ball of what looked like string and lights. "Can you untangle this? There are four strings, attach the middle to the top of the pole in the crow's nest and throw the untangled strings over the side!"
Minato took the ball dubiously, but walked up to the crow's nest to detangle it. With so much practice, he was getting pretty good at just walking up the mast to the crow's nest. It wasn't quite so scary after the first five times. He settled against the pole, keeping an eye on the sea ahead of them while he untangled the strings.
"Well here's one end," he muttered, pulling up one end of one string. "Just gotta find the others."
He started untangling it, using the one end he'd found to slowly untangle that one section.
He found another end halfway through the first, and set it aside to do after he figured out where this first one connected to the middle thing.
The first one was tossed over the side to get it out of the way once it was finished, and Minato focused on the second end he'd found.
It took a good few hours, but he managed to untangle it all, each end going over a different side, and finally, the middle of the thing, a weird thing that plugged into three slots on the top of the middle pole. Minato was not about to question it, especially when all four strings lit up immediately, all shining red. He supposed it had to be called the 'Red Light Festival' for a reason. It probably wasn't because the lights hung during the festival were yellow or orange.
He climbed back out of the crow's nest, figuring he might as well see if anything else was needed of him. He spotted Uzumaki running around the sails, horizontally and vertically, using the long string of lights Minato had untangled to decorate the sails.
He could see lanterns hung on any sort of corner, be it on the very end of each sail, or the ends of the ship, a large one on each side.
Kushina sighed cheerily, startling him as she draped an arm over his shoulders. "It's so pretty! I love the decorations for the Red Lights Festival! It's always super pretty!"
Minato assumed it was probably prettier when at night and the lights were more visible, as opposed to late morning, when the sun was high in the sky.
"The lanterns will get lit once the sun goes down, and it'll look even cooler!" Kushina added, grinning. "Hey where's Tadaaki?"
Minato shrugged. He wasn't Tadaaki's parent, or his jounin-sensei, he didn't know where he was at all times of the day, especially given the fact he's spent the last four hours untangling lights. Although now that he thought about it, it was about the time Tadaaki usually disappeared, so he was probably doing whatever he did when he wandered off.
"You're no help," Kushina complained.
Minato just shrugged again, unapologetic. "Is there anything else that needs to be done?"
Kushina shrugged. "I don't think so? The lights are up, the lanterns are up, really all we need is the festival itself to start, and that won't happen until sundown. Other people are setting up the band area already, so that'll be ready soon, the stage will really just be that slightly raised area in the front of the ship, so I think that's everything."
"The band area?"
"'Course guppy," Mitoko clapped her hand down on Minato's shoulder and he jumped. "We aren't going to have the band just down here with us. That'd mess stuff up."
"Like what?" Minato asked, confused.
"How well the sound reaches the entire boat for one," Mitoko said, laughing. "But it can also mess with the instruments. Most are chakra sensitive, and when not channeling their user's chakra, can be prone to reacting weirdly to other people's chakra. So when not in battle we try and keep them away from large groups of people."
"Makes sense I guess," Minato mused. He didn't know anything about Uzushio instruments, hadn't ever used one, so he wouldn't know. He also couldn't play an instrument.
"Have you ever played an instrument before, Minato?" Mitoko asked. "Most Uzushio children try at least one. It helps with air supply and lung capacity, so even if they don't stick with it, it helps."
Minato shook his head. He hoped that wasn't a problem.
"Well, no time like the present, now we're just waiting for sunset, so we might as well." Mitoko chuckled, linking her arm with her daughter's. "Kushina is a trumpet, although she hasn't played in years."
"It was fun, but I got other things to do," Kushina said solemnly. "Like the fuzzball."
"Maybe if you play trumpet you'll annoy him into silence!" one of the Uzumaki hanging by their legs from one of the sails.
"Kamiko, get down from there," Mitoko scolded. "You'll fall."
"I will not," the shinobi protested, swaying slightly, blue and silver bells in their hair clicking and chiming.
Minato snickered as Mitoko gave the shinobi a very unimpressed stare. "What was the last four times you fell then?"
"An accident?" Kamiko tried.
Another look and Kamiko huffed, swinging up to actually sit on the sail. "Fine fine, I'm getting down."
Mitoko sighed, shaking her head. "Right. Kushina, why don't you see if Minato feels like picking an instrument."
Kushina nodded, and detached her arm from her mother's, linking it with Minato's instead and dragging him along.
"I bet you're a flute," Kushina declared, dragging him down into the bottom of the ship. "You seem like a flute."
Minato had no clue what she was talking about, so he just nodded along.
"Tadaaki seems like a clarinet, we'll have to ask him too!" Kushina bounced a bit as she walked, or maybe it was skipping, Minato wasn't sure of the difference anymore.
Kushina opened, or rather, kicked in the door, and those inside, an Uzuki, Hoshiko maybe? Minato didn't remember, and a very surprised Tadaaki jumped.
"Kushina, Minato, what are you two doing in here?" Minato was pretty sure the lady's name was Hoshiko.
"We're letting Minato pick out an instrument! Mom suggested he see if he thought anything looked interesting!" Kushina dragged Minato further into the room, and he waved sheepishly. "So is this where you keep going?" Kushina asked Tadaaki, releasing Minato to bounce over to Tadaaki. "I knew you were a clarinet!"
Hoshiko chuckled. "You're a trumpet, right Kushina?"
Kushina nodded, beaming.
Minato didn't get what it was with calling people instruments. "Why do you keep saying I'm a flute?"
"Well, there's a certain level of stereotypes around a lot of instruments," Hoshiko explained easily. "Trumpets are brash and loud, flute females are generally the gossipy type, males are generally quieter and sometimes gay."
"Minato's just disaster!" Kushina chirped. "Bi or pan, I haven't decided yet."
Minato was very lost. "Am I what?"
"I can't decide whether you just like girls and boys, or all people," Kushina explained. "But you're definitely disaster."
"She says like she isn't a disaster herself," Hoshiko noted mildly.
"That just means I can recognize a fellow disaster better," Kushina replied, sticking her nose in the air.
Minato decided to ignore the conversation and pretend it wasn't confusing him beyond belief. He scanned the instruments on the walls. All were intricately decorated, each with a different theme. He narrowed in on one of the instruments, a beautiful long one that looked like it was made of metal with engravings of whirlpools and wind currents.
He picked it up, inspecting it and all the holes with the coverings. Keys? Wasn't that what they were called? He was pretty sure he'd heard that somewhere.
"I knew it," Kushina declared. "That's a flute!"
Minato stared at it, wondering if he should put it back and pick a different one. But this one was really pretty. ...He'd live with Kushina declaring she was right.
"I don't think anyone uses that right now," Hoshiko mused. "I personally am water natured with lightning, not wind, so my flute is engraved differently. I'm also one of two flute users on the ship, the other preferring amplification and healer type songs."
Minato didn't quite understand what the chakra natures had to do with it, so he just nodded. "I'm wind natured. Would like to learn water release though."
"And we'll help you do that," Hoshiko assured him. "Would you like to learn some of that instrument?"
Minato nodded. He was curious, sue him. He wanted to learn.
Kushina just cackled in the background.
(A/N) Right, so just realized some people might be mildly confused if they've read both this and Silence of a Shinobi. So, here goes. Semari is still Kushina's mother, as stated in Silence of a Shinobi, but Mitoko is also Kushina's mother. Congrats, you now know both are very gay for each other and it's adorable. It'll come up in Silence of a Shinobi, albeit much later. Semari captains a different ship, so she will be appearing later. In Lilo and Stitch, for those curious, Mitoko died in the original Uzushio attack. What're you saying, of course I didn't only now think of this when I just realized that Semari's supposed to be Kushina's mom.