UPDATED: 3/22/2020
God I know I should really be updating J 3:16, but this story just kept attacking me in my sleep so I had no choice, I swear.
Yes, yes, I know I said I won't work on a story other than J 3:16. BUT in my defense, this story is technically the prequel (?) of J 3:16, so I think I can be forgiven (I think?). It's also just a collection of drabbles and techhhhnically not a story.
I just absolutely adore the relationsihp between Kushina and Mikoto and think they deserve a story of their own. Anyhoo, this is how I imagine how they first met.
The first time they meet is sporadic.
The first time they meet, they resonate on the same wavelength.
The first time they meet, they are naive.
Mikoto is sore and angry. The rage that burns in her gut flares up her spine, squelches in her stomach and triggers the tensing of her stomach. It stands in stark comparison to the maturing bud that is meant to bloom into a beautiful Uchiha woman, nipped to decorate the room. It's what directs her arms when she throws kunai with staggering accuracy and fills her lungs to expel the Great Fireball Technique, one strong enough to scorch the tips of the glass blades on the opposite of the river bank. She's everything her father wants in his sons and more.
Unfortunately, her father's generation is old enough to either have lived through the Warring States prior to Konoha's founding themselves or to have heard enough about it to justify their conservative beliefs. Thus, she has to be poised and sweet and soft, ready to obey her father and brother and to comfort the man who will be her husband. And thus, her father refuses to teach her more A-rank jutsus, even though she's already a genin. Because she is a girl and not a boy like her brother.
Instead of screaming in frustration, she glares at a particularly ugly rock and kicks it hard. Immediately, she regrets it and glances around to see if anyone witnessed what would have brought shame upon the Uchiha Clan (she hates this part of her too, the one that just can't find a way to escape the traditional lessons ingrained in her mind since birth). Before she can release a sigh of relief, there's an audible yelp from the bushes to her right. A small body jerks out of them and rolls on the ground, clutching her head with a loud groan. The girl's burning red hair is tangled with branches, and the bright violet eyes that shine behind thick strands of mud-stained hair glare at her. Mikoto stares at the body in alarm.
"That hurts!" the girl cries, rubbing at a red spot on her head that's beginning to swell. "Why'd ya have to do that?!"
Mikoto hurries over to the girl's side and leans down to offer a hand. "I'm sorry, I didn't—"
The girl swats her hand away and jumps to her feet, swirling around to stick her tongue out at Mikoto. "That wasn't very nice!"
Mikoto narrows her eyes. She was trying to be nice. "Maybe you shouldn't have been in the bushes in the first place. What were you doing there anyways?"
(A part of her fumes at how she sounds just like her brother).
The red-haired girl's face flushes as red as her hair. "People can be in bushes if they want to, 'ttebane!" With that, she spins on her heels and dashes away, leaving behind puffs of dust.
Mikoto grits her teeth, her jaw aching from the strain. She doesn't deserve to be treated so rudely by anyone when she hasn't done anything wrong, especially by someone she's never even met before. But before she turns back to start training, a ray of light reflects off of something small from a few feet away from the bushes, hidden underneath the roots of another bush not far from where the other girl had been crawling in. Mikoto has to drop onto her knees and stick her arm far underneath before she manages to grab hold of it with a grunt. When she rises to her feet and peers at her discovery, she realizes it's a brush, not unlike the one she uses for her calligraphy lessons. She notes it's of much higher quality than hers, though. Its thistles are thick and soft, no doubt chosen with careful thought. Engraved on the side is Uzumaki Kushina, an unfamiliar name, which is unusual; she, like her siblings, keeps herself updated on all the big and small clans in Konoha.
She tucks it into her shirt. Whoever this Uzumaki is won't be hard to find. After all, she knows for a fact that there's literally no one else who has this name.
(She's not like her brother. She doesn't think she's above everyone else, and she's going to be polite for the sake of being a good person)
The first time they meet is sporadic.
The first time they meet, they are naive.
The first time they meet, they are completely unaware of what's to follow.