Disclaimer: I do not own.

Edit: I apologize - I didn't realize till just now that I had been using the wrong verbal tic for Kushina (ttebayo, which is Naruto's verbal tic, instead of ttebane). I've fixed this.

Chapter 1: When Leaves Bud

Sometime while they flew through the night sky, the moon became obscured by dark, dank clouds and the light pitter patter of rain could be heard. Minato gripped the girl in his arms tighter and frowned. She had long since passed out from exhaustion, but twitched slightly in her sleep when a cold drop of moisture hit her face. Minato stopped for a moment on a large branch, sheltered above by foliage, and gently rested her against the trunk. Smoothly, he took off his jacket and covered her prone form.

He took a moment to examine her tired face, and rested his cheek on a hand. She was an oddity. Sleeping peacefully like this, she looked almost fragile, even though he knew she was anything but. Smiling slightly, he lifted her to his arms and took off once more toward the village.

When he reached the gate, several ANBU were waiting for him.

"Good work, Minato-kun," one in a dog mask said, "How did you find her?"

"I didn't find her," he said simply, "She left a trail. I just followed it." Leaving it at that, he passed the shinobi and speedily made his way to the hospital. The ANBU followed him.

"Sandaime-sama would like to see you tonight," the one in the bird mask informed him.

Minato nodded. "I'll report after Kushina-san gets some medical attention. She doesn't seem hurt but better safe than sorry. And she's definitely exhausted."

The ANBU nodded sharply. "Very well." With that, they flickered out of sight.

Sarutobi Hiruzen sighed, before taking a long draw from his pipe. He could feel a headache beginning to form at his temples. Not even an actual jinchuriki yet and already Uzumaki Kushina apparently had a large target painted on her forehead. Not that he was all that surprised. The Uzumaki clan was renown in all the five great nations. Their chakra was strong and their skill with seals was highly valued. And here was Kushina, a young, impressionable Uzumaki, isolated from the rest of her village.

Apparently the temptation had been too great for the Raikage.

And to think, he might have almost obtained her, if it weren't for one, single genin.

The third hokage took another draw from his pipe before letting it out slowly, willing his shoulders to relax. Namikaze Minato. No one doubted he was a prodigy. Hiruzen knew that Jiraiya was starting to take particular interest in him. He was a level-headed boy, with strong principles and amazing battle prowess, from what he had heard. Before, Hiruzen had found that slightly hard to believe – the boy seemed too…nice. But Jiraiya's reports had claimed that the 11 year-old's gentle persona disappeared the minute he engaged an enemy. And now, to have intercepted and bested an entire squad of Kumo-nin…

There was a knock on the door.

"Hokage-sama," his assistant called, "Namikaze-san is here."

"Send him in," he grunted.

The door creaked open, revealing spiky blond hair and wide blue eyes. He bowed. "Hokage-sama."

"Report."

Minato nodded. "Kushina-san had left a trail of hair as she was being led away. I found the trail and followed it. I managed to catch up to them just before the border. There were three Kumo-nin, I would say just barely chunin level. Being so close out of Leaf territory made them sloppy – I was able to sneak up on them and take them out before they really had a chance to react. They should still be there – I stuck them with chakra-suppressing seals and tied them up. But my priority was bringing Kushina-san to safety, not capturing them. So I left to bring her back to the village."

The older man nodded. "Very good. You displayed considerable skill tonight. Now, you are certain they were wearing Cloud hitai-ate?" He could make no accusations unless the ninja were clearly wearing symbols of their village.

The boy pulled something out of his pocket. "I thought you might need confirmation." He placed the forehead protector on the hokage's desk.

Sarutobi arched a brow. It was rare to see such forethought and political consideration in a genin.

"Good. Thank you. You may go, now. Submit a written report later. I'm classifying this as a B-rank."

"Understood, Hokage-sama." Minato bowed, before turning to exit the room.

When the door closed, Hiruzen took another long draw from his pipe before letting it out in a slow exhale. He gazed pensively at the Cloud hitai-ate on his desk, before flicking his eyes back to the door.

Namikaze Minato. It would be interesting to watch his development.

Kushina, dressed and ready to go, tapped her foot impatiently. "Can't you do this any faster, nurse-chan?" she demanded as she sat on the edge of her hospital bed.

The aforementioned nurse clicked her tongue. "Patience, Kushina-chan. I have to make sure your vitals are good one last time before we let you go."

"But I said I feel fine, 'ttebane," the red-head complained, "One good night of sleep was all I needed."

"Better safe than sorry. Now uncross those arms and let me take your blood pressure."

Kushina huffed but did as she was told. "Fine, but don't be surprised if it's a little high."

A hesitant knock grabbed both of their attentions. "Um…is it alright if I come in?" Minato stood in the doorway, polite smile ever so present on his face.

Kushina struggled to hide the blush inspired by the sight of her savior. Staring fixedly at the floor tiles at his feet, she remembered what he said to her that night.

"You're hair is beautiful, so I noticed it right away."

The memory made her chest feel inexplicably warm and tight. She frowned – she didn't know what to do with these new…feelings.

"Of course, Minato-chan," the nurse chirped, "We were just finishing up here, anyway."

"Finally," muttered the red-head. The nurse pointedly ignored her.

"That's good, is everything alright?" Kushina's stomach fluttered at his concern, but she quickly stamped the feeling down. Calm down, Kushina. He's like this with everyone. Remember? That's why you always thought he was such a flake.

"Everything's fine," the nurse assured him, "In fact, Kushina-chan was—"

"I'm leaving," she interrupted, hopping off the bed. At the nurse's disapproving stare, she shrugged. "What? You said we were just about finished, right? And my vitals are good, so there's no reason for me to stay. Plus, I'm starving."

"I offered you food just a moment ago."

"Hospital food sucks."

Minato laughed. "Well, I was here to pay you a visit, but why don't I take you to lunch instead?"

This time, she couldn't hide it. An infuriatingly pink tinge spread beneath her cheeks. "It's fine. You don't have to do that 'ttebane."

Observing the two, especially the red-head's uncharacteristic behavior, the nurse giggled. Ah, to be young again. "That's very gentlemanly of you, Minato-chan. Kushina-chan, you should take advantage of this rare display of chivalry."

Kushina harrumphed. "Chivalry's dead. Kunoichi killed it. Now let's go." With that, she stalked past the blond into the hallway. Minato grinned and followed, while the nurse watched them go with a mischievous smirk on her face.

"Uh, is it okay for you to eat ramen just after getting out of the hospital?" Minato asked hesitantly as he watched the red-head inhale her food with wide eyes.

"I'm fine 'ttebane. You shouldn't have even brought me to the hospital in the first place. All I needed was a little sleep," Kushina insisted before polishing her bowl in record time. "More please, Teuchi-occhan!"

"You passed out. You had chakra draining seals on you all night. You should still be weak and barely out of bed," he asserted.

Kushina shrugged. "Uzumaki are resilient. And the seals didn't get all my chakra. Not even half. They were low-grade, hardly the work of a seal master. One of the idiots that had me probably just read about them in Sealing for Dummies or something. And I have a lot of chakra, like most of my family."

Minato's eyes brightened with interest. "You seem to know a bit about sealing."

Kushina eyed him carefully over her new bowl. "Sure. It's my clan's specialty. What's it to you?"

"Do you think you could help me out?" he asked eagerly, "I'm trying to create a new jutsu, and I think seals would be really useful for it. I've drafted something, but it's far from useable. I tried to show Jiraiya-sensei but he's a bit busy, plus he thinks my idea's impossible."

The kunoichi hesitated. "I don't know…I'm still technically in training. My mom's been teaching me, but I don't have mastery yet."

"But I bet you still know a lot more than me!" The blonde insisted, causing the red head to blink. It was a bit weird to hear that from the class genius. "Any advice or suggestions would really help."

"Well…I guess I do owe you…Fine. I'll see what I can do," she relented.

Minato beamed. "Great! Could we meet tomorrow? Training ground 7?"

"Alright," her stomach fluttered a bit when she realized she'd be spending more time with him, probably alone with him, but she pointedly ignored it and filled it with more ramen instead. "Just don't expect too much."

"I'm sure you'll be really helpful," he said confidently, "You're very clever."

Kushina flushed. No one's ever said that to her. Most people thought of her as loud and brazen, not subtle in the least. "Yeah right, 'ttebane," she murmured.

"Really! You thought of dropping your hair to leave a trail. Who would think of that? And you managed to do it without them noticing!"

He really had to stop with the praising. Or a little part of her might start to take it the wrong way.

"What was that about anyway?" she deflected.

"What do you mean?"

"Why did – how did, I mean, why bother saving me, 'ttebane?"

Minato frowned. "Of course I'd come save you. You're my comrade."

Kushina's heart sank, as a little snarky voice in her head snorted, I told you so.

"Oh, well, thank you," she said lamely, turning away to hide her disappointment. "Teuchi-occhan! Bill please! And I'm paying for this one, too!" She jerked her thumb at her meal companion.

The ramen chef chuckled. "Your friend already paid for the both of you, Kushina-chan."

Kushina's eyes widened. "What?" She turned to look at him in disbelief. "You didn't!"

Minato grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. "Well, consider this a thank-you for agreeing to help me out!"

She slapped her forehead. "That's not how it's supposed to work! You saved me last night! I'm trying to thank you, here 'ttebane!"

"You just did."

She gave him a look. "That's not what I meant." She pulled some money out of her pocket and shoved it at him. "Here, take it."

The blond frowned. "I'm not taking your money, Kushina-san. This is my treat."

"Argh, you're just trying to get me to owe you a lot of favors, aren't you?" she groaned.

His frown deepened. "Of course not. I can't believe you'd think that."

Looking at him carefully, Kushina realized she'd actually offended him. Geez, why's he so damned…honorable.

A week ago, you'd have called him a sissy, not honorable.

Shut up!

She sighed. She had to do something. If she let it end here, with him paying for her, it would be like a d-date and that was no good. Plus, it was against her code to owe people money, dattebane! Then an idea…a horrible, horrible idea, struck her. She took a deep breath, and gathered her courage. "H-how about this – next time, it's on me, okay?"

His smile reappeared. "Sounds good."

"So, in short, you're telling me they failed," the Raikage grunted.

The shinobi in front of him dipped his head low. "Hai, Raikage-sama. When they failed to rendez-vous last night, our team went to their last known location and followed the trail. It ended just before the border."

The Sandaime Raikage sighed. It had been a risky move, attempting to abduct the young Uzumaki. But her chakra was perfect for containing a tailed-beast, and the Raikage's nephew was beginning to show the signs of losing control of the retrospect, he probably should have sent more qualified ninja, but he hadn't thought it necessary for kidnapping a fresh genin. And although the ninja he sent weren't the most powerful, they were very skilled at hiding their trail, which was more important for this mission.

"What happened? Could you figure out any details?"

The reporting shinobi shook his head. "There were minimal signs of struggle. I think they were taken by surprise. The strangest thing, however, was that we could only ascertain one other set of tracks following them." He frowned. "As if one ninja took down the entire team."

So, some leaf ninja had gotten the drop on them. Probably one of their jonins. The Raikage suppressed a sigh. Konoha was as strong as ever. And now they had three of his chunin. Great. I'm going to have negotiate for them, too. I hate politics. the burly, physical man mentally grumbled.

"Very well. Wrap up the investigation. Dismissed."

The shinobi disappeared.

At this rate, we'll have to resort to Bee after all.

"Alright, so what exactly did you have in mind for this jutsu?" Kushina asked as they leaned against some training posts.

"Well, basically, space-time ninjutsu." Minato twirled a kunai absently, watching as the blade circled around his finger.

Kushina's eyes widened. "Space-time ninjutsu? Like the ones the second hokage used?"

"Somewhat. I want to make one that's practical for battle purposes though. Right now, space-time ninjutsu tend to be big, flashy, and need a lot of preparation. No one really uses them in battle."

"Because they're difficult. Even the best in my clan barely have a handle on it," Kushina asserted. She sighed, "Tell me exactly what you're thinking of."

With a flick of his wrist, he caught the kunai and flung it at the ground, so quickly that Kushina could barely see the movement. "I'm fast. Really fast. I've always been," he stared hard at the kunai, "But I don't ever want to be not fast enough."

"So…teleportation," the red-head realized.

"Yeah. The fastest you could possibly get."

"Well, we have the shunshin(1) technique."

The blond shook his head. "That's not teleportation. That's just a very swift movement, under the cover of some element like smoke, water, or whatever. It's more used for get-aways than for battle. Even in battle, with sharp enough eyes, you could follow the movement. Teleportation is instantaneous. I want to be as close to being in two places at a single moment in time as you can get."

Kushina regarded him carefully. "…Is it okay if I ask why you want to come up with this jutsu?"

Minato was silent for a moment, staring at the clouds. Then he opened his mouth to speak. "My father died when I was a baby. I don't really remember him. But my mother died when I was eight. I remember that. We were at the marketplace. A horse pulling a cart got spooked." He paused, before continuing. "It wasn't even that I was frozen. I tried to get to her and push her out of the way. But I wasn't fast enough." He turned his gaze back to the kunai. "I don't ever want to be not fast enough again."

Kushina didn't know what to say, or what to do. All she could do was stare. Everyone thought that he was perfect, that nothing ever went wrong for him, that he always succeeded. But now, Kushina could see that he didn't think that. In fact, it looked like he thought he'd failed quite a bit, even for things that were completely out of his control. And although this made her fall for him just a little more, it also made her…sad.

Hesitantly, she placed a hand on his shoulder, making him turn his head and lock gazes with her. As indigo eyes bored into cerulean, some silent form of understanding passed between them, and all she said was, "I'm sorry."

He smiled softly. "I know. Thanks, Kushina-san."

"Kushina."

"Huh?"

The girl wrinkled her nose. "'Kushina-san' sounds weird. Just call me Kushina. We're going to be seeing a lot of each other, anyway. Thisjutsu is going to be a piece of work."

His smile turned into a grin. "Got it."

She reciprocated, before taking her hand off his shoulder – ignoring the subsequent tingling – and standing up, brushing herself off. "Now show me what you have so far."

Jiraiya of the sannin prided himself with being observant. No, he wasn't referring to his peeping skills. He may not be a genius like Orochimaru, but he was a spy master, and thus very proficient at catching minute details without even trying.

So, of course he immediately noticed when his favorite student started spending a lot of time with a certain feisty red-head. A certain, female, feisty red-head.

When Jiraiya had come back from his last mission to hear about his student's latest rescue, he didn't think much of it. That was Minato for you. All around nice guy with a bit of a white-knight syndrome, he'd even say.

He even didn't think much about how he'd found the girl – by noticing her hair of all things – because Minato was a prodigy and was just as observant as his sensei.

But one thing that Minato didn't do, much to Jiraiya's dismay, was hang around girls.

That's not to say he didn't get along with them. Oh no, Minato was very much a team player and got along just fine with his peers – uncommon for geniuses but that was what the blonde was: an uncommon genius. But he purposefully didn't spend too much time with girls.

"They…expect things if I hang out too much with them," his student had said by way of explanation.

Yeah. That's right. Jiraiya, self-acknowledged super pervert, had a gentleman for a student.

Go ahead, laugh at the irony.

So when Uzumaki Kushina started to show up repeatedly after training sessions – and Minato would actually leave with her – Jiraiya had to know what was going on.

"Alright squirt, spill," he demanded during one of the their one-to-one training session.

"What do you mean, sensei?" Minato replied, the picture of innocence.

He smacked him upside the head. "You know exactly what I mean. What's going on with you and that Uzumaki girl? If I had known you like 'em feisty…."

The boy gave his teacher a disapproving look. "Sensei…"

"Well then set me straight! What's going on?"

He sighed. "She's just helping me with that jutsu I mentioned before."

The toad sage snorted. "The teleportation one? Yeah right. How's that coming, anyway?"

Minato looked at him indignantly. "I'm telling the truth! She knows a lot about seals, and so I asked her to help me out."

Well, she was an Uzumaki, so it made sense…But still, things didn't add up.

"I thought you didn't like to spend time with girls because it," he made a face, "'gave them the wrong idea' or something like that."

The boy shrugged. "Kushina's not like that."

Jiraiya grinned. Finally they were getting somewhere. "Kushina, eh?"

Minato gazed at him flatly. "She asked me to call her that."

"Sure. Doesn't mean you have to. I'm sure a lot of girls ask you call them a lot of things."

The blond crossed his arms. "Sensei. Don't read too much into this. Kushina is a good person, a good friend. She's been a great help with the jutsu, and she's…different. I like spending time with her. She treats me like she treats anyone else."

Jiraiya arched a brow. "Does she now? So she beats you up on a regular basis? Geez, kid, didn't know you had a masochistic streak."

Minato covered his face with his hand and groaned.

Jiraiya sighed, and clapped a hand on the boy's shoulder. "I was joking kid. I get it." Although Minato got along with his peers, he couldn't really form strong bonds with many of them. They were too intimidated by him. Jiraiya had always been able to tell that that saddened Minato a bit, and being a singled-out student of one of the legendary sannin certainly didn't help. But that was the price of skill, and Minato always assured him that it was worth it, as long as it helped him protect his village. It was part of the reason why Jiraiya had encouraged Minato to find a girlfriend so much – being in a relationship just like any other boy would make him more accessible to his peers.

He supposed this was a step in the right direction.

Minato's shoulders relaxed, and he removed his hand. "Thanks, sensei." A thoughtful look crossed his face. "Actually, if anything, Kushina avoids anything that most girls would try to take in the wrong way. It's as if she thinks she isn't…good enough." He frowned.

Jiraiya nodded. "I'm not surprised, kid. You told me she was bullied at the academy for her hair-color and face shape, didn't you? Just because she gave those brats what they had coming to them, doesn't mean their words didn't affect her."

Minato's frown deepened.

"It's time, Hiruzen."

The Third Hokage took his pipe from his lips, letting out a stream of smoke. "Hm…"

"Uzumaki Kushina is a genin now. For all intents and purposes, a full-fledged ninja of the village. It's time we tell her, so that she may start training," Homura frowned, "Mito-sama's health is slowly beginning to deteriorate."

Koharu also added, "The recent kidnapping attempt also proved that the other nations have determined Uzumaki Kushina as a desirable target with great jinchuriki potential, as we had. The abduction may have failed this time, but there are never any guarantees for next time. We must act soon."

Hiruzen gazed out the window overseeing the village. After a long moment, he sighed. "Very well."

(1) Body Flicker technique

A/N: So I'm taking a liberty here in interpreting Minato's words "You made me Hokage" to Kushina. But I don't think it's too unreasonable - Kushina and her clan are supposed to be famous for sealing, so I think it's very possible she helped him out with developing the Hiraishin seal.

Pretty tame chapter, but I enjoyed writing it - it was very relaxing.

Reviews are appreciated.