Here's the next chapter, just one day late! I've been a racer with updates lately, but this will be the last for this week. Dunno when I'll post chapter 23, because I have exams until next weekend, and then I'm off for a short vacation.

But thanks for reading, and enjoy!

22. Mission: New Years

If there was one thing to be said about Kushina's general behaviour towards people, it was that she was more a woman of action rather than words. If she felt the urge to let out her mood on Minato, she had expressed them through smiles, glooms, hits, kicks, hugs and silence.

She had spent the past few weeks expressing her difficulty and awkwardness of the situation by avoiding him completely.

For comfort, Minato had been invited to the usual Ino-Shika-Chou barbecue night. However, the harmonious feeling of hanging out with undramatic male friends sunk a little as soon as Inoichi remembered that Minato and Kushina had become a bit too good friends – at least in his eyes.

It was hard enough to discuss the situation once more with two more (drunken) guys, but it was worse to discuss it with someone who had recently had high, maybe a bit too superficial feelings for the same girl. In the end, though, Minato found it quite amusing, even though he felt like slamming a fist in Inoichi's face when he pointed out that they had both failed. Instead, Minato pointed out that he hadn't been directly rejected, he just hadn't gotten an answer yet.

Not that he had asked her anything, but even a note would've been nice.

Luckily for Minato, he had been too occupied talking, so Inoichi had not had the chance to refill his sake cup more than five times; it was enough, however. When they had paid their bill and left the barbecue, they walked down the main street of Konoha in the direction of a place where they could relax their full bodies and light-headed minds with a bottle of beer. Minato made a mental note to order a glass of water instead, but was in a much too good mood to remember.

By the time New Years arrived, several things had changed. The most noticeable one was how the streets of Konoha had gone from busy and normal, filled with people out on errands, to streets of shining, red lights, girls dressed in beautiful kimonos and a slightly higher level of drunken people than usual.

Minato, however, was still limping a bit from the poison, and had decided to leave the alcohol on the shelf that night; the barbecue night had done his health no good. But he had made an effort in dressing nicely, and had put on a pair of black pants and a clean, white shirt.

Had he planned New Years earlier, he had imagined he'd meet Kushina by the red bridge, walk to the centre of the city and find a good spot to view the fireworks, though it was a bit difficult to plan such events when said girl hadn't spoken to him for the past few weeks. So he met up with Shikaku and Kousuke and walked towards the city centre, a relaxed atmosphere hanging above them. He kept one eye on the lookout for Kushina, thinking about the mission he had hired himself to accomplish: to walk up to her (of course in a most confident way), look her in the eyes, smile if she did the same and somehow talk to her in private.

The last part was definitely going to be the most difficult one.

He met Mikoto on the way, and deciding it was best to start off the mission by gathering information, he excused himself and fell behind to let her and her husband catch up.

"Hey, Mikoto," he greeted her with a smile.

"Oh, hello, Minato," she smiled back. "Feeling better?"

"Much better," he replied. "Where's Itachi?"

"A cousin is looking after him. Don't think he'd find the fireworks as pretty as we do."

They chatted casually for a moment before Minato began digging for answers.

"Have you spoken to Kushina lately?" he asked, keeping his voice calm and only mildly interested. Maybe Mikoto's shinobi traits had begun to leave her, because he thought he saw her flinch a little and her face making a knowing sort of smile; but it was gone after a second, and she replied.

"Met her earlier today, yes."

So Kushina had obviously talked to Mikoto about what happened at the old workshop outside the village; likely because it bothered her in some way.

"Is she coming to the city tonight?" he then asked.

"She said something about meeting Tsume and Rabi near Ichiraku's," Mikoto said.

Jackpot. He now knew both the location of the girl and who she was meeting, a good base for bumping into her sometime during the night.

However, he found it a bit over the top to question Mikoto too far about Kushina and her plans, so he told the married couple he was heading off with Shikaku and Kousuke, and made to leave.

"By the way," he said before leaving. "Do me a favour and don't tell Kushina I'm looking for her, all right?"

Mikoto looked at him in an uncomfortably curious way, with something like a smirk playing on her face, but she nodded; all Minato wanted to know.

Catching up with Shikaku and Kousuke again, they headed down the crowded main street. It was about half an hour to midnight, so they had all the time in the world to find a good spot for firework-viewing. They met Inoichi and Chouza by the barbecue – the perfect place to stand and watch out for Kushina's arrival, as Ichiraku's was nearby. He saw Tsume and Rabi standing by the ramen bar, chatting with a couple of Inuzuka girls, and only kept half of his attention on the conversation going on in the group of boys around him. The only flaw in the mission was that several girls from his academy class, affected by alcohol and dressed up in kimonos in various colours, found the courage to walk up to him and ask if he wouldn't come and see the fireworks with them; making up the excuse that he already had plans - which was half true, anyway - he managed to shake them off.

A quarter to midnight, Minato decided it was time to see if he could sense Kushina anywhere near; maybe she had spotted him and hidden, but he wasn't going to allow her to do that.

Therefore he almost jumped of surprise when he sharpened his senses and found her three meters behind him.

He didn't turn around at first, thinking it would scare her away like a baby deer; but apparently, it wasn't Ichiraku's she was heading for, but him.

"Minato, can I talk to you?" he heard her ask.

Well, that was certainly a surprising twist in his plans.

He turned around; she stood there, beautiful as ever and more elegant with her kimono and the hair that no doubt Mikoto had nicely done, looking up at him with a face so full of self-restraint that he thought she was going to turn on the spot and run away if he did one wrong move.

"Sure," he smiled – she had after all looked him in the eyes – and tried not to stare too intently at her. Leaving the others behind (Inoichi with an expression between jealousy and a grin), they walked down the street. He wondered where she was taking him.

"You look nice," he said, at which Kushina smiled and blushed; he had no idea how much more difficult he was making the situation for her. Though so far everything was going according to plan: he had found her, she had looked him in the eyes, and he now had the best opportunity to talk to her in private.

They stopped at a small, nicely made platform, where people stood and waited for the fireworks to begin. They walked over to the edge, and Minato sat down on the stonewall around it. She leaned against it, her shoulder almost brushing against his.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Minato asked, though he thought he knew.

"Well, how do I start," Kushina said, staring out at the night sky behind him. "I've just had this issue lately, and I don't know what to do with it."

"All right," Minato said, almost chuckling, but rather nervous of the outcome of the conversation. "How can I help with that?"

Kushina drew her breath, but kept her eyes firmly on the stars.

"I just don't know how to put it," she said eventually.

"Well, then, show me," he said. He had figured out long ago that Kushina found it easier to show him the problem rather than telling him.

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because it's difficult."

"Try."

Minato braced himself for a slap in the face, something that would tell him to stop messing around, and the longer she stood there staring at the sky, the more nervous he became.

Kushina turned her head and gazed behind her, where a few kimono-clad girls stood glaring at them, whispering rapidly and shooting her dark looks.

"All right," she said, determination audible in her voice. The second after she had said that, fireworks were shot from the ground some distance away, making a spectacular view in the already magnificent night sky.

"Happy new year," Minato said, looking up at the fireworks.

He froze when he felt a warm hand touching his left cheek.

Looking down again, he saw Kushina's face, her eyes staring into his, she was so close that he could hear her nervous breathing, and she closed her eyes, leaned in -

Kushina was not a woman who usually spoke through words. This was, however, the first time she had expressed her feelings by kissing him.

Minato was still in a state of the most wonderful shock. He was holding around Kushina, and only moments ago had they broken a long, slow kiss; usually, he would take any nearby people into consideration when a situation of personal matters came into view, but now he simply didn't care. Heck, it was new years, girls around them were glaring with fallen jaws as their generation's most admired man had finally shown his true feelings for the one girl they had seen as their worst opponent in the battle of the sunny boy, and they couldn't even blame it on alcohol.

Because apparently, Kushina had been on a mission too, so she had left the alcohol alone so that she wouldn't overdo it when talking to him. Though Minato didn't know about this.

Kushina was leaning against his shoulder, he rested his head against hers and looked back up at the coloured sky.

"I had no idea," he said.

"I know, I'm good at hiding things," Kushina said, somewhat apologetically. "I'm sorry I've avoided you."

"We're square," Minato grinned sheepishly.

Kushina drew her breath deeply again. "Remember the day you rescued me?" she blurted quickly, sounding as though she had gathered all the courage she owned to be able to say something she barely dared to say. "You know, the day we became friends?"

"Yeah?"

"I've liked you since then."

A moment passed in which Minato took in those words; then he looked down at Kushina, who looked up at him both apprehensively, and with a burning blush on her cheeks.

"You what?" he said incredulously. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Kushina removed herself from his shoulder and suddenly smirked.

"I didn't know if you liked me back," she said. Ouch. "And then you went away for five years, and then you came back and -"

"Kushina, everyone knew I liked you," Minato interrupted. "Maybe not before the war but at least after."

"Okay, so maybe I knew," Kushina corrected herself. "You weren't hard to read. But it – I just -"

But her words got stuck somewhere, so she just looked him in the eyes with an expression that was difficult to read.

"You're my best friend, I thought it would mess things up," she finally said.

"I almost did, didn't I?" Minato asked.

"Nah," Kushina grinned. "You couldn't get rid of me even if you wanted to."

"Never dreamed of it," Minato smiled, placed his hand underneath her chin, lifting her head up, and kissed her again.

That had initially been his plan in the old workshop, but he had never gotten so far.

They had walked slowly home much later, being the last to leave the look-out, and was sitting on the rooftop of Jiraiya's house. Minato was not sure if the shock had left him yet, but his head was filled with emotion and questions; he felt unbelievably happy, somewhat relieved and very confused. Plus, he had not long ago found out that despite Kushina's sometimes short-tempered, restless and impatient nature, she was a good kisser; slow, steady and soft.

"So," Minato began; he had a million things to say and a billion questions, and had to start somewhere. "Why me? I mean, you said the day I rescued you … I can't remember you showing much affection for me before that."

Kushina, who was sitting in front of him, leaning against his torso, looked up at his curious face.

"I was a bit blind, though, wasn't I," she replied. "I had just decided that you were a weak wimp, but you proved me wrong. You completely changed my view of you that day."

"Oh, did I," Minato grinned and earned a sharp poke to the ribs.

"So why me?" Kushina challenged. "When did you start to feel any affection for me?"

Minato, feeling slightly embarrassed, scratched the back of his head.

"Uh, ever since the day you walked into the classroom on our first day at the academy," he said, watching how her eyes widened. "I remember I just thought your hair was pretty at first, but when you beat up those boys I think I both admired you and was scared shitless. I was at least pretty certain I liked you in some way and tried to speak to you. That failed, though."

"Why, because I was the only one who dared to state the obvious?"

Minato looked at her with narrowed, suspicious eyes, unsure whether or not he should ask what she meant.

"Depends on what you mean by obvious," he cleverly said.

"It's obvious, isn't it?" she replied. "The obvious means I was the only one who saw you for who you truly were."

"What, a weak flake?"

Kushina only grinned.