Updated: June 7 2014

16. Gratitude

The months that contained summer was supposed to be over, but as the winter months were approaching, the weather seemed to linger. The sun was still shining hotly over the village of Konoha, and had done so for the past six months; dry, sunny weather made the villagers lazy, happy and relaxed, but also came with downsides.

At least for Kushina. The farmers were sending requests after requests asking for help with their fields, in danger of running short of water. And seeing as Kushina was among those who had the power to bend water to do as she willed, she was being sent along with other skilled chuunin and jounin on D-ranked missions.

For Minato, the downside was that he had to bear an annoyed, bored and grumbling girl.

He had been a lot busier than Kushina had during the summer, having a team to train and studying at the same time. He tried to get separate training sessions with both Obito and Kakashi after their team practices, while Rin spent time at the hospital; he then found time to study Fuuin jutsu, which left him with little spare time. And while he had rushed from training field to training field and devoured scroll after scroll, Kushina had had her missions now and then, and was doing the time-swallowing task of trying to use the Kyuubi's chakra with perfect control. Kushina may not have been the most restless person, but she did have a lack of patience.

When her sensei left for a long-term mission, she needed someone else to supervise her training, and seeing as Minato was one of the few who new her secret and had a fair chance of standing against a very minor outbreak, he was the lucky one to deal with a girl with a very low patience span.

"Breathe steadier, Kushina."

Kushina snorted.

"That wasn't very steady."

Kushina opened her eyes and gave Minato an annoyed look.

"We've been standing here for hours," she said. "And there's barely been any improvement at all."

"Of course there's been improvement," Minato said in mild surprise. "You've doubled the amount of chakra you can control since we started."

"Yes, but I still can't use it in battles," she replied and walked over to a small pile of water bottles in a bag, and sat down next to it. "I mean, that's the reason why I'm doing this, right? If none of my techniques will work in battle and I have to rely on the Kyuubi, the situation's bound to be quite dangerous, and if I have to concentrate like this –" she waved casually in a random direction – "I won't even be able to move an inch. I'll be rooted to the spot, trying to breathe …"

"You'll get better, I'm sure," Minato smiled, trying to act reassuringly, and it was a wonder it worked; even though Kushina had been impatient, annoyed and possibly a bit angry, the gaze she gave him told him she was actually taking his words for something. However, she looked down on the ground with a nod that didn't seem overly convinced.

"It's just, I can't even use it while I'm training for combat," she then said, now sounding sulky. "If I lose control and let the Kyuubi take me over … I mean, it's happened before. It was just by coincidence that I was at the right place and with the right people, and even then I managed to land you in the hospital."

Minato had to admit she was right. Kushina was both good-hearted and hot-tempered, and any attempt from the enemies that could make her furious or feel threatened or scared, was a good opportunity for the Kyuubi to grab her emotions and steer them himself. The last time that happened, Kushina had not transformed that much - one could barely call it transformation - and she had been knocked out before she could do serious harm to anyone, thus stopping the transformation. Though if the Kyuubi could grab on to more of those emotions, she could transform further … and he would be a lot more difficult to stop.

"There might be a way to stop it," Minato said slowly as he thought hard on what he had studied lately. "If we could just seal the chakra away … Kushina, can I see that seal?"

Kushina glared at him for a moment.

"Uh, sure …" she said, and began to remove the belt tied around her waist. The cloth of the kimono top she was wearing fell to the sides, revealing a mesh T-shirt underneath; she pulled it up to expose her stomach, and made a hand seal to activate her chakra. Black swirls formed themselves around her bellybutton, making out the seal that kept the Kyuubi prisoner inside her.

Minato sat down beside her, placed a hand on her shoulder and pushed her lightly down to get a better view of the seal. He became silent, all his focus on the seal, looking at every sign and swirl and sometimes craning his neck to get a different view of them. He was so focused on the seal that he didn't notice Kushina's behaviour; she tensed every time his fingers lightly touched her stomach, finding the whole situation pretty awkward.

The minutes passed in silence, in which Minato memorised the whole seal, and once disappeared in a puff of smoke and reappeared a moment later with scrolls of Fuuin jutsu in his arms. One after the other he opened the scrolls, reading them quickly, setting them aside if they were useless or placing them out in front of him if he needed them.

Kushina took a curious look at one scroll he had rolled out on the ground.

"Compression seals?"

"Yep. If we can make the Kyuubi's chakra continuously smaller, it should stop in the end. It's worth a try, anyway."

He received a rather impressed look from Kushina, and it was as though new hope lit in her eyes.

And simply because of that, he begged for the seal to work.

Minato had spent a week developing the new seal, trying to match it to Kushina's seal. It was hard work, but he never gave up, keeping in mind the red-haired girl's look on her face as he said there was an option. Not a fool-proof option, but a possible one.

One thing he was happy about, was that he now got to spend more time with his best friend. Ever since he returned to Konoha from the border they had caught up on their friendship, leaving them as good friends as they used to be. They could again talk about everything, with one exception: when Minato had confessed his childhood feelings to her she had clearly reacted, but when he came home a few days later, she had made a good attempt in avoiding the subject. And so the fact that Minato used to have feelings for her went undiscussed.

So Minato was forced to discuss the matter with either himself, or the one person he trusted on such fragile subjects: Shikaku.

"She probably just thinks it's a bit awkward to deal with," Shikaku said lazily, staring up at the sky from the patch of grass they were stretched out on. "I don't think she's used to situations like that."

"She's got some experience with it," Minato pointed out. "Inoichi, for example."

"Well, I think it's more about what you are to her to begin with. She completely rejected Inoichi without a problem, but you've been good friends for years and I think she wants to be a bit more careful of what she says to you, so maybe she just decided to shut up so there wouldn't be a problem."

"True," Minato said. "I'm just curious to know what she thinks of it."

"Well, it is a compliment, kind of. I'd guess she felt pretty good afterwards."

They stared at the clouds in silence for a moment. Then –

"The question is," Shikaku said, turning his head to Minato with a grin threatening to infect his face. "Did you tell her the whole truth?"

"No," Minato replied at once; he had thought a lot about it lately and was pretty certain on his answer. "If I had she'd probably avoid me, not just the talk. She avoided Inoichi, didn't she?"

"Yeah, but why not give it a go?"

"I have no idea if she looks at me just a fraction of the same way," Minato shrugged. "Isn't that how it often ends up? When you've known someone for a long time you get sort of a brother and sister relationship …"

"Well, you never know 'til you've tried. Personally, I'd not try, but, you know … I'm trying to be a supportive friend here."

"I appreciate it," Minato grinned.

The day after was the first day to test out Minato's new seal. Kushina looked rather anxious, so he found it wise to explain that even if it didn't work this time, there were more options left.

Though there was no need to worry. Kushina, now wearing only a short top for practical reasons, activated her chakra as usual, mixing it with the red, irregular chakra of the Kyuubi, trying to keep a steady flow inside of her. Her face was furrowed with concentration as she let out small bits of chakra at the time, and Minato waited until he knew the chakra flow was about to burst; he needed the chakra to be out of control to know if the technique would work properly. Standing ready with the hand seals done, he kept a close watch of any sign of her losing control.

"Ngh –"

The chakra flow was becoming an untidy tangle, and Minato quickly placed his hand on her stomach, hoping for the love of Kami that he hadn't overdone it. A black seal interrupted her already present one, and she crouched a little of the sudden pain; but within seconds, the chakra was gone, as though it had been sucked back in her stomach, unable to get out.

"It worked!" Kushina exclaimed happily when she straightened up.

"It did!" Minato smiled widely.

"Just one thing, though," Kushina said, though she didn't look as discouraged as the last time she had found a hindrance to her training. "Isn't it sort of impractical? I mean, do I have to walk around with my stomach exposed and a bodyguard who knows the seal at the ready in case I lose control?"

"I've been thinking about that part," Minato said. "I could do the same as with my Hiraishin kunai; basically just transferring the seal onto a piece of paper that reacts to chakra. It won't even have to be placed on your stomach, I could just place it on your forehead instead."

Kushina looked as though her life could not have been better, and – it was possible that it was under the affection of bliss and a warming sun – she approached him, stretched out her arms and gave him a big, grateful hug.

Minato thanked the sun dearly for waiting so long to surrender to winter.