Chapter 11: Figuring It Out

Minato felt good. Not giddy, or light-headed, or ecstatic, or overjoyed—just good. And no matter what happened today, he doubted that it would kill his good mood.

"Hey, hey, look at that smile!" Jiraiya seemed to drop out of the sky to match pace with him. "You make up with her already? The sun's barely up!" The older man flashed him a lecherous grin. "Unless you had a little late-night rendezvous…"

"Jiraiya-sensei!" Minato sputtered, reddening. "I did no such thing."

"Well what happened?'

"I caught her at the training grounds yesterday afternoon when I went out to clear my head. We talked and worked some things out and everything's fine." He shoved a hand in his pocket, aiming for a casual stance. "That's it."

"That's it, huh?" Jiraiya sighed and tilted his head back to gaze at the scraps of cloud overhead. "That's great news. But it would've been nice if you ran with it and saw how far you could get."

Minato stumbled. "Jiraiya-sensei?"

"No worries, though." The Sannin cheerfully patted his student's shoulder. "Play your cards right and you'll ditch your virginity in no time."

"Jiraiya-sensei?!"

"And when that time comes, don't be shy about asking me for advice. I know a few moves that'll have her screaming your name in no time!"

"Jiraiya-sensei!"

"But then again, seeing as it's you, it'll be at least a decade until you get through all the bases with her."

"Sensei! Can we please talk about something else?"

"Hm?" Jiraiya glanced down at his red-faced former student. "Oh fine," he pouted. "Any particular plans for when Sarutobi-sensei hands you his hat?"

"A few," Minato shrugged as his hot face started to cool off. "I'd like to find a way to encourage the Hyuuga to discard the practice of the Caged Bird Seal, or modify the seal so that it isn't so…divisive."

"Very ambitious," Jiraiya mused. "That'll eat up a few years…"

"I know," Minato nodded. "But I can be patient; I have time."

"True enough," the Sannin agreed. "You're young. You have plenty of years to spend."

"And I'd like to—"

"Minato-kun!"

The blonde choked and froze. No, no, no, no—

A bleached blonde woman bounced right up to him and latched onto his arm. Her hair was curled and stiff with hairspray and she had overdone it on the make-up. She was wearing a tight blue dress that was very short and revealingly cut. Green eyes sparkled up at him and her flirty giggle made him shudder.

"Minato-kun, it's been so long since I've seen you!"

"Chihiro-san," he gulped. "I—"

"You can call me 'Chihiro-chan'," she giggled. "We've known each other since the Academy."

"Chihiro-san," he tried again, "could you please—"

"Minato-kun!" she whined and pouted childishly, cuddling closer to him. "The '-san' suffix is so formal! We're good friends; you don't need to use it."

"Er…" Minato furtively glanced over at Jiraiya for help—only to spot the Sannin across the street trying to flirt with a pair of young brunettes. Damn it…

"Minato-kun," Chihiro purred, making him cringe. "Do you like my dress? I just bought it last week."

"Chihiro-san, please let go of my arm," he pleaded.

"Sorry," she giggled and loosened her grip, but she didn't let go. "We should catch up with each other! My uncle runs a nice little café on the west side of the village, so we can get a nice cheap lunch."

"I-I can't," he protested, desperately grasping for some excuse. "I have plans."

"What kind of plans?" She pouted. "It's not ninja training, is it? Couldn't you reschedule that? Or…maybe I could come watch and then we could do something afterwards!"

"No, I, uh…I…" Think of something, think! "I…I have a date!"

Chihiro started and stared at him for a moment before recovering her cheerful, clingy disposition. "Oh, I'm sure that your friend wouldn't mind pushing back your appointment by an hour or two." Her hand drifted up to his chest and started tracing abstract patterns on his flak vest.

"Oh, she'd mind," Minato hurriedly assured the woman.

"She?" There was a slight sneer in Chihiro's voice.

"Yes." Her green eyes were like jade daggers trying to pierce through him and he swallowed hard. "I…I have a date with my girlfriend."

Chihiro looked almost like she'd been physically hit. "Your girlfriend?" she repeated blankly.

"Yeah," he grinned.

It was strange—just referring to Kushina as his girlfriend gave him a little rush and revived his earlier good mood. He didn't have to force his grin, it just sort of spread over his face. For a moment he even forgot that Chihiro was still hanging on his arm as he basked in the knowledge that he – Namikaze Minato – had a girlfriend. And she wasn't just any girl, she was Uzumaki Kushina—the girl who had once broken his nose. Somehow that made it even better.

"I…see," Chihiro finally managed to mutter, breaking Minato out of his little grinning daze. "Well…enjoy your…date." After choking out that final sentence, she finally let go of his arm and hurried off down the street.

Minato blinked. "Wow. Maybe I should've lied about having a girlfriend before…"

Then he felt a little guilty. Lying on a mission was one thing, but lying to a civilian (in this particular case: one who'd made some effort to be a ninja, she'd just not made the cut) was not something he should resort to. There had to be some way to let a girl know that he wasn't interested and let her down gently…

And then it hit him that he hadn't exactly set up a date with Kushina. Aside from a few shy kisses and a little cuddling, the only thing they'd done the previous day was to confirm their interest in each other and their mutual desire to date. No other plans for the future had been set.

I…have no idea what I'm doing. A little spark of panic started to worm its way into his chest. What…what do I do now?

He glanced across the street to see that Jiraiya was still over there, trying to weasel a date out of the brunette pair.

Maybe Sandaime-sama can help me…


It was quite thoroughly noon and Kushina still hadn't rolled out of bed yet. She wasn't an early riser, but she rarely stayed in bed so late, unless she was ill or hung-over—and right now she was neither. Currently, she was being incredibly lazy and basking in the heady realization that she was now dating Namikaze Minato—the man that she wished for, but never dared dream that she'd ever get.

She really ought to get up, and shower, and get on with her day, but she couldn't work up the necessary willpower to move. It was like a dream, and a part of her feared that if she got up the dream would be over and gone like it never happened. So she continued to doze in her bed, staring blankly at her off-white ceiling while she replayed scraps of the previous afternoon…

"So are you just going to stand there and grin at me all day or what?" she asked curiously

Minato blinked, confused. "Uh…?"

Swallowing a rush of nerves, she managed a shy smile. "I thought that you wanted to kiss me again."

"Y-yeah." He swallowed hard and hesitantly closed the gap between them and she once again found herself with her back pressed against the worn training post. "I do."

Kushina was sure that her heart was going to pound its way out of her chest as he stared down at her with his intense blue eyes. He raised a hand to cup her cheek, but hesitated and then dropped it. Minato shifted anxiously and looked conflicted, and for a long minute Kushina feared that he was having second thoughts.

"I-I don't know where I should put my hands!" he blurted out in a panic.

"You dork!" she laughed and threw her arms around his neck. "If your hands go somewhere I don't want them, I'll let you know!"

"Okay," he gulped, briefly flashing her a nervous half-smile.

His hand came up to her cheek again and actually made contact this time. The touch sent shivers racing all through her and had she not been propped up against the post she felt she felt she would've collapsed to the ground. Even though he was more confident this time, he still hesitated and impulsively she leaned in the last few inches and lightly brushed her lips against his. He jerked back with a startled laugh, and she giggled at him. Then it got quiet again and he studied her thoughtfully for a moment, gnawing at his lip briefly, before he leaned in again and pressed a firmer kiss to her mouth. It was a fairly innocent kiss (no tongue or anything), but still her knees turned to jelly and—

"Uzumaki!" There was a noisy thud on her apartment door. "What the hell?!"

With a growl she rolled out of bed, tripped on the sheets, and stumbled over to answer the call. She swung the door open to find Daichi, Arata, ad Hachiro standing there. The trio was very surprised to see her still dressed for bed and un-showered.

"What the hell?!" Arata sputtered.

"Are you sick?" Hachiro asked worriedly.

"No, I'm fine," she sighed and scrubbed at her eyes. "What's up?"

There was a pause.

"We had plans for today," Daichi answered slowly, "remember?"

Kushina blinked, then smacked her forehead. "Crap, I completely forgot! Give me fifteen minutes."

She darted to her bathroom and left her front door open so that the three men could hang out inside while she got ready.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Hachiro called through the door. "It's not like you to forget plans or sleep in so late."

"Honestly I'm fine!" she shouted over the water. "Fantastic even!"

"I'm not sure that I believe you," Hachiro shot back. "I've known you ever since you were seven years old. You only lay around past ten if you're sick or something's wrong."

"Nothing's wrong!" she couldn't help but laugh. Everything feels right!

She ran through her cleansing routine at double speed. Hair shampooed and conditioned, face washed, and body washed, she hopped out of the shower and brushed her teeth while pulling on her bathrobe. After her mouth felt fresh and clean, she wrung as much water out of her long hair as she could, brushed it out, and started to braid it. There was just no way that her hairdryer would be able to get her hair dry enough in the five minutes she had left to bother with it.

"Why hello there, Blondie!" she heard Arata call cheerfully from the other room. "Fancy seeing you here!"

Kushina frowned and tied off the end of her braid with an elastic band. What the hell?! She tied the belt on her robe and cracked open the bathroom door to see what was going on.

Minato was crouched on her windowsill, glancing nervously at the three other shinobi. "Er…hi?"

"So," Arata bounced over to the window, cheerfully invading Minato's personal space. "What brings you to the den of the rare female Uzumaki, eh?"

"I, uh…want to talk to her?" Minato gulped anxiously.

"Talk, huh?" A light bulb went off over his head and Arata grinned lecherously. "Come here for 'round two' of…talking?"

Kushina snarled and hurled her heavy hairbrush at her tattoo-faced comrade. "Quit being perverted you horny bastard!"

"So violent, Uzumaki-chan!" Arata whimpered dramatically and rubbed at his ear, which had been grazed by the brush.

"Serves you right," she huffed and rifled around in her drawers for clean clothes, and then retreated to her bathroom to dress.

Through her closed door she heard Arata ask: "You like it rough, eh?"

"W-what?!" Minato choked.

"Arata-baka!" Kushina roared and slammed out of her bathroom still yanking up the zipper of her shirt. "One more comment like that and I'm going to give you a black eye!"

"Touchy, touchy!" Arata laughed. "I must be getting close!"

Kushina growled at him and waved her fist threateningly towards him.

"Enough man," Daichi snorted.

"Keep teasing her and she's going to ditch us," Hachiro warned.

Arata sighed in disappointment, but finally stopped tossing around innuendos.

Kushina grumbled incoherent obscenities while she finished up—donning her weapons, hitae-ate, sandals, and such. Blowing out a noisy breath, she turned to Minato with a smile. "So what's up?"

"Could I talk to you…?" Minato squirmed and glanced at her friends. "Um…alone?"

"Ooo!" Arata cooed teasingly.

"Sure, I'll see you up on the roof," she nodded and he quickly formed a hand seal, translocating in a swirl of leaves. "I'll be right back boys," she smiled ferally at her comrades. "And if I catch any of you eavesdropping, your asses are mine."

She used the same technique as Minato had to pop up on the flat rooftop of her apartment building. But before she completed her disappearing act, she caught a snippet of Arata singing the childish "Kissing in a Tree" song, cheerily inserting her's and Minato's names into the lyrics. Kushina ground her teeth and planned on smacking Arata around after she chatted with Minato.

Arriving on the roof, she sat down across from Minato and smiled nervously. "Sorry about him; he's always an ass. Now what did you want to talk about?"

Minato anxiously ran a hand through his yellow, spiky hair and sighed. "I'm guessing that you already have plans for today."

"Yeah," she giggled and fiddled with the end of her damp braid. "Things have been so crazy the last few days that I actually forgot about it." She swallowed and felt the butterflies fluttering in her stomach. "Did you want to do something?"

"I was hoping…" He shrugged and sheepishly scratched at the back of his head. "How about tomorrow?"

She frantically mentally reviewed her schedule, double and triple-checking it to make sure that she wasn't forgetting anything this time. "Yeah, I'm free."

"You want to get lunch, or something?" he asked hopefully.

"Sure," she grinned broadly. Then, on a whim, she hopped onto his lap and hugged his neck. "Oh, this is so weird!" she giggled, giddy.

"Yeah," he chuckled and loosely wrapped his arms around her waist. "Normally I'm eating by myself and you just show up."

"Good times," she laughed.

"Hm," he smiled into her hair.

"You know," she mumbled and snuggled up against his chest. "I didn't want to wake up this morning because I was afraid that yesterday was a dream."

"That's silly," he replied. "If you didn't get up, then we wouldn't be able to hang out."

"True," she agreed. "It just seemed so unreal, though…"

"What's unreal is you," he countered.

She frowned up at him. "Oh?"

"You have no problem rushing headlong into battle or trash-talking a man twice your size in a bar, yet you don't seem to believe yourself worth my notice." He raised an eyebrow at her. "That's just ridiculous."

Kushina blushed and ducked her head. "Whatever."

"Hey, you two done up there yet?" Arata obnoxiously shouted up towards them.

She slipped off Minato's lap and leaned over the roof's edge. "I'll be down in a minute! So," she looked over her shoulder at her boyfriend, "I'll drop by your apartment tomorrow around noon?"

"Yeah," he smiled. "I'll see you then."

"Excellent," Kushina cheered. "Now if you'll excuse me, there's an ass that needs kicking!"

Minato chuckled as Kushina dropped down the side of her building to wrangle her old Uzu comrades back into line. He was glad that he'd come to talk to her, and even more glad to have arraged a real date with her. Things really felt like they were falling into place. Not only was he well on his way to making Hokage, he now had himself a real girlfriend.

He grinned and launched himself off the roof towards the Hokage Tower.

I'm glad that I talked with Sandaime-sama…

When he dropped in on the aging Hokage earlier after his nerve-wracking encounter with Chihiro, he'd felt so lost. The old man had calmly sat him down, listened to the whole story, and then carefully mulled over the problem. Then he'd puffed on his pipe and smiled.

"Relax, Minato," he'd chuckled kindly. "Do only what you both feel comfortable doing and take things one step at a time. You and Kushina are both clever people; you'll figure it out just fine!"