The two stood quietly over the small grave looking at it silently in a reserved respect that only came from knowing that the comrade they buried was a good man. The Jounin gulped and took in a sharp gasp of air. The noise got to him and his eyes began clotting with tears. Minato's face finally contorted and he began crying.

"Minato," Noriko placed a hand on his shoulder. "I know how close you and Makoto were… I'm sorry." She apologized quickly and began walking away the hand dragging behind her and slowly falling to her side as she walked over to the gate where in a black outfit the red head turned to her and asked if he was alright in a slightly defeated voice. "It's going to be a while; he blames himself for Makoto's death. I doubt Jiraiya-sama could even snap him out of it. Do your best to cheer him up Kushina, I'd like to see him smile again."

"I'll try Noriko." She said and carefully glided across the grass and stopped behind him, waiting until he turned around. Minato raised a hand and wiped his tears away and sighed again. Minato pulled out a kunai and carefully set it on top of the head stone. He bowed his head and recited a small prayer under his breath. Minato raised his head and opened his eyes to stare at the sky with hurting showing through. It was another few minutes before either of them budged. Minato turned his head to look over at the Hokage's monument and caught a glance of her and turned around. Kushina just calmly walked up and set a white lily next to the kunai. "Makoto told me the Lily was his favorite flower, I'm thinking about growing some now."

"I think he'd like that." Minato said quietly and went back to glaring down at the headstone. "I didn't think he'd go like that."

"He was a shinobi, a little klutzy, but willing to die for his country, and more or less his friends." Kushina said and took a step to her left putting herself closer to him and reminding Minato for the time being, she was still taller than him by an inch. She laid a well manicured hand on his shoulder and patted it. She sighed and broke out laughing and Minato looked at her a little angry. "Calm down, Minato, think about it. Do you really think he'd ever forgive you if you spent all this time mourning him? He'd probably be here pointing a finger in your face going 'come on, you never used to be so gloomy!' Wouldn't he?"

"I suppose so." Minato suddenly had to plant his feet firmly as Kushina jumped on his back with arms wrapped around his neck and legs around his waist. "Thank God you're so light. A little warning next time would be much better, alright?" He said smiling weakly and wrapped his arms under his legs to help support her. "I suppose I'm acting as a rickshaw now?"

"Yep!" she cried happily. "I declare that in honor of Makoto we need to do something fun. Let's go get some Ramen and leave it on your Sensai's tab!"

"Don't you think he'll get upset?" Minato asked, "Jiriaya-Sensai already wastes a lot of his money on women…"

"And he can waste it on his favorite pupil? If it makes you feel better I won't eat the entire shop out of its noodles this time." She suddenly lowered her head on to his shoulder and groaned.

"What's up, you were all sunshine and happiness a minute ago." Minato said.

"You don't want to know."

"Maybe I do, I don't want you to puke on me… again."

"That was an accident and the sushi was contaminated!"

"Sure, Kushina, sure."

"You really want to know?" She felt the hair moved in a nodding motion. "I'm cramping…"

"Eh…" Minato flat out stopped on the side walk and was at a loss of reaction, foot still in the air in mid step. Kushina giggled a bit before groaning again. Minato began going throw a series of facial expressions before finally, and accidentally, blurting out "you're not going to get blood on me, are you?"

"Hm, no, I took care of that part, on to the Ramen." She said regain her perkiness. "If you keep standing here then all you do is keep thinking about my menstrual cycle." She reminded him.

"Right." Minato began running and she nearly would have fell off had she not been nearly choking him. Skidding to a stop Kushina jumped off and landed perfectly causing Minato to trip. He nearly fell but caught a hand out before him and spun on it turning himself upright and facing her. "If you're going to keep using me as a rickshaw there have got to be some rules."

"I agree! I should be yelling at you when you go to slowly." She smiled warmly and giggled causing Minato to smile. He raised a hand and opened the flaps to let her enter first and then follow in behind her sitting down at the seat to see the teen-aged Icharu instead of his father. "Hey, Ich, where's your dad at?"

"He's out right now, he's going to see about getting the building behind us, the abandoned one. He wants to expand this into a full fledged restaurant." Icharu said somewhat dimly.

"I think I like the stand better." Minato said quickly and Icharu quickly agreed with him. "Well, can we get four bowls, I want two shrimp."

"Same here, but with extra mushrooms." Kushina said and then heard a hand come through the flaps, she was about to grab it but Minato beat her to it and they look to see as the hand moved it aside and Tsunade popped her head in. "Tsunade-sama." Both turned fully towards her and Minato pulled his hand away and apologized.

"Looks like I found you first, Minato. Jiraiya's been looking for you, he has a present for you. But if you're getting lunch…" She said about to walk away.

"Wait, I can come. Cancel my Ramen, Icharu." Minato said and was about to get up and run off when he stopped. "Kushina… thinks for making me feel better."

Kushina nodded and Minato disappeared with the Sanin. Kushina sighed. "Give me his ramen too!" She said quickly, "this is all going on Jiraiya's tab!"

"Didn't you get in trouble for this last time?" Icharu asked quietly.

"Nope!" Kushina said taking one of the bowls, "Minato gets in trouble for this!" She quickly began eating without any manners. Icharu looked at her awkwardly and quickly set the next bowl down.

Minato happily rushed across the town and stopped at the ramen shop and saw it was deserted, only ten minutes later from when he left. He lifted up the flap and found Icharu in the corner cleaning. "Hey, Icharu, do you know where Kushina went?"

"She said something about taking a nap." Icharu mumbled, Minato began to go towards Kushina's apartment but Icharu made a noise. "Wait, she went that way."

"That way?" Minato said following his hand and looked up at the Hokage's building and monument. "So she's up there again? Thanks, Icharu." Minato began running and jumped up on the Hokage's wall past Jiraiya and Tsunade who tried to stop him from running on the building but failed. Minato quickly jumped on the top and ran across the top and jumped up on the blank face wall and jumped on to the top.

"Quick meeting?" Kushina yelled across to open space. She let a leg hang down out of the tree she was laying in so he would spot her, "I hope you don't mind, I ate your ramen, I was hungry."

"It's alright. I have some great news!" Minato casually jogged over and jumped onto the branch right next to her.

"They saw your pathetic attempts at being a rickshaw and actually got you lessons?" Kushina said quickly.

"I'm going to study with the frogs." Kushina shot up and looked at him fully awake. "Jirayia-Sensai said that it would probably be two or three months, isn't that awesome? I'll learn about Senjutsu and get a sage coat. Not to mention I'll be able to summon them. I get to go tonight!"

"And you'll smell like swamp and learn how to spit oil and grow warts." She said snidely. "Who'd want to go train with a bunch of wet, stinky amphibians." She said quietly and dropped out of the tree with the greatest of ease.

"Kushina? Don't tell me your jealous." Minato said and jumped down beside her and tried to put a hand on her shoulder. She quickly slapped it away. "Did I do something wrong?" He asked solemnly.

"Ah…. It's… urrghhh…" She said and began walking away. "I'll see you in three months."

"Something bothering you." He said tauntingly and followed her. "You made me cheer up and now I'm going to do the same."

"Right now, I can't be cheered up." She said flatly and then Minato quickly and forcefully grabbed her shoulder and stopped her with a dire face.

"You make me tell you everything, Kushina." She quickly spun around and kicked him in the chest.

"Bye rickshaw, I'll see you later." Kushina dropped down and Minato grabbed his chest and coughed. Minato quickly retraced his footsteps and passed Jiraiya and Tsunade who tried to say something else and all Minato had time to say was "talk later" before he rushed passed them.

Minato got into the middle of the city and declared following her a lost cause. Sighing he jumped on to the roof top and made his way over to his own apartment. Minato silently walked inside and grabbed his travel bag. He went over to the drawers and just began pulling shirts and pants out and shoving them in. He tossed the bag still open on the bed and grabbed a few blanks scrolls and threw them over to. He stopped and looked into the small little mirror above his dresser and punched the dresser breaking it. He sighed and slapped his forehead. "God dammit."

Minato grabbed some dressings from the rubble and tossed them in the bag too. "Why are girls always so secretive, the period thing I could have done with out but…" His eyes slid over to the calendar and he saw some bright red scribbling that belong to Noriko and Kushina. Noriko had written "Will pay loan back to Nor." And Kushina, circled several times "K's B-Day!" Minato had forgotten all about Kushina's birthday that was on Thursday, which was tomorrow.

"Is that what she's mad about?" Minato said and held the calendar looking at it. "And I still have to pay Noriko back…"

There was a knock at the door followed by "Minato! I'm comin' in!" and Jiraiya leisurely walked in and looked at him with a confused face. "What's got ya' all in knots? I can't have you making me look bad in front of the frogs."

"Sensai… It's just, I can't go right now, Friday maybe." Minato said and looked at him causing Jiraiya to raise an eyebrow. "I have something important to do tomorrow, I can't go until Friday."

"Hm…" Jiraiya saw the calendar and Minato shot his hand down from it. Jiraiya walked over and saw it. "That would happen to be the girl we thought was a boy? She's distracting you from your studies, eh?"

"Not distracting, per say. I promised her I spend her birthday with her. I intend to keep my promise." Minato said firmly.

"Pa's not going to like this, since he's already here. I'll tell him to wait though." Jiraiya said scratching his head. "He leaves you realize you lost your only chance to go train with them."

"I understand."

Jiraiya suddenly began laughing, "don't worry about it! Pa love being here, gets him away from Ma, bet he'd give ya a week off. Alright… Hey, what happened to your dresser?"

"Frus…tra…tion… eh?" Minato said trying to explain his moment of anger.

"Kush! Let me in!" Noriko yelled through her door. "It's already nine in the morning."

"I… AM…. SLEEPING!" She yelled through exaggerated breaths and turned over in her bed shoving the pillow over her head. She grabbed her blanket and pulled it up tighter to her and began to slowly lull to sleep when she heard the door open. "Nor, I said I was sleeping."

"I know that, tell that to him, he picked your lock." Noriko said following Minato into the room.

Minato jumped on the bed and lay down next to her and lifted the pillow up showing her face. "Haaaaaaaaaappy birthday to you."

"You're evil…"

"Happy birthday to you."

"Nor, get him off my bed!"

"Happy birthday dear Kushina, happy…" Kushina quickly loosened the blanket and shoved it in his mouth.

"I swear sometimes you're more annoying than I am." Kushina said slowly. She sat up, holding the blanket to her, stretched and Minato quickly pulled the blanket out of his mouth. "Happy birthday to you."

"Are you quite finished yet? I think if you sing another bar Kushina will throw you out the window." Noriko quickly noted. Minato looked over at Kushina's glare and he scooted over to the edge of the bed and laughed.

"I just wanted to be the first to sing to her." Minato said and turned to her and he and Noriko watched as she yawned and rubbed her eyes. "Go get dressed so we can take you out to breakfast."

"Everyone should celebrate their sixteenth with a birthday breakfast and cake." Noriko said supporting the idea.

"Alright." She said still half out of her head and got off the bed keeping the blanket with her, Minato fell off as the blanket was pulled. "I told you," she stopped to yawn. "To get off my bed." She walked into the bathroom and closed the door.

"Wait… she was," Minato was hit upside the head by Nor.

"I'm saving you the trouble, you're leaving tomorrow after all, you can think about Kushina naked when you get back." Noriko said loudly and there was a crash in the bathroom. Minato sighed gruffly and looked up at Noriko with a slight detesting in his eyes. A minute later Kushina walked out in what most would call a revealing outfit and a giant smile on her face she was trying hard to hide.

Breakfast was uncomfortable to say the least with Minato and Kushina doing everything they could do to avoid each other but found that somewhat impossible seeing as Noriko was right there and had found a new purpose. "Kushina, that's a new outfit isn't it?"

"Yea, I got it last week." She said quickly and stuffed food into her mouth.

"What do you think Minato?" Minato quickly acted as if he wasn't paying attention and Noriko slammed her hand on the table.

Minato pretended to jump back into consciousness, "Oh, I'm sorry did you say something Noriko?"

"I asked you…"

"I'll be right back!" Kushina said quickly and got up to wandered away into the women's bathroom for a temporary escape. Noriko admitted in her head that was clever and went back to Minato who had turned his attention to his coffee. "I know you're paying attention, why don't you just ask her out?"

Minato nearly spit his coffee out had he not stopped himself and swallowed it. "Noriko, you have an over active imagination. Kushina and I are friends."

"Right." Noriko said a little suspicious, "did you know that's the world number one denial sentence?"

"I'm not in denial."

"Are too. Even Makoto would tell you just to ask her out!" Noriko said loudly and Minato began rapidly looking to make sure that Kushina wasn't in sight anywhere.

"Keep quite." Minato said hushly. "Look, even if I did, it wouldn't work out, I'm leaving tomorrow."

"For three months… Oh… I'm sure she'll be cheating on you." Noriko said sarcastically and Minato turned his head towards the window and Noriko turned to see Kushina walk up and sit down. "So Kushina, is your birthday going well?"

"Actually, I'd kind of like to go back to bed, I'm enormously tired, but it's nice. I've never gotten taken out for breakfast before, mainly because I'm never awake for it…" She shrugged and shoved a bit of pancake into her mouth.

Noriko turned to Minato who was still sitting there silently sipping away at his coffee. Noriko sighed and then got a thought in her head she felt she had to share and who hopefully trap one or both of them. In a quick and cheery voice Noriko blurted "You two are really great at avoiding each other."

Without a moments hesitation both cheerfully said "thanks!" and then realized what they were thanking her for.

"I rest my given case. Well, I'm off to see what my mission is, later." Noriko said and stood up and left the two staring at each other which both quickly corrected. Neither of them really had much they wanted to say at the matter and went back to their distractions until it was evident they had nothing more to keep them at the table.

"Well, I think I'm going to head back home." Kushina said still sleepy.

She stood up and was surprise when Minato did too. "Come on, I'll rickshaw you since I'll be gone for so long and you'll actually have to walk."

"Oh, he pitys me…" She said smartly and walked out behind him then jumped on his back taking her normal position on his back. Minato quickly hopped on to the roof tops and began going in her apartments direction. "Why can't you stay on the streets, I just ate…"

"I thought people from whirlpool don't get motion sickness."

"Common misconception." Kushina said quickly.

"The streets are kind of crowded, thought this would be easier." He said and Kushina laughed, "what?"

"You just want to be seen with me so you'll become more popular. Since the little prodigy hasn't turned out any tricks all his limelight has gone away…" she said with a bold fluttering motion of her hand. Minato quickly jolted her and she slapped the hand over her mouth. She calm down, "I will puke on you again."

"I'm not that scared of the puke, it the smell and the stains that bother me." He said and quickly jumped across to her apartment building balconey right in front of her door. He let Kushina down and stretched out his back. "Here you go, where's my tip?"

Minato held out a hand and Kushia grabbed a pen from her pocket and scribbled a note on his hands. He read it quickly 'rickshaw should be smoother rides' and looked at her. Before he could say anything she poke, "I know, I know, I'm being a brat."

"Actually it should be 'rickshaws' not 'rickshaw', but yea, you are… a little bit." Minato said and then waited. "Well."

"What?"

"The day. I said I was going to spend 'the day' with you, ergo…" Minato held out a hand to the blue sky.

"Whatever." She said and walked in her apartment, threw off her shoes, and collapsed onto the bed. "I'm taking a nap." Kushina got adjusted between one of her pillows and the blanket and sighed warmly. She suddenly felt weight on the bed next to her and opened an eye. "What are you doing, Minato?"

"The day…"

"Got that part."

"With you."

"Also got that part. I'm taking a nap though."

"Then so am I." He said and grabbed an extra pillow and shove it under his head. "Of course, the coffee won't help."

"What-ever." Kushina said and closed her eyes and was almost asleep when she heard light snoring and opened her eyes to see that Minato had completely passed out. She smiled and moved closer to him and tossed some of the blanket over the sleeping mass. "That's kind of cute."

"Caught you!" He said blinking awake. "I knew it."

"Knew what, snoring's cute to me?"

"You like me as much as I like you."

"Do not."

"Lair! That's why you wore that outfit today is because of what Noriko said this morning!"

"Well duh! You're a guy and I like attention. Has that ever occurred to you?"

Minato stopped, "has it ever occurred to you that besides me, you have hit every other guy that has approached you?" Kushina stopped and thought for a second which gave Minato time to take his hand and place it on her face. "Kushina…"

"I don't do sappy. Whatever suits your facny I'm going to sleep." She said and rolled over moving his hand off her face and pulling him around her.

"You were lying…"

"Shut up."