Uzumaki Kushina was born to a clan of fire and lightning, surrounded by raging seas and home to the first Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune. She was born to a clan that built itself from the ground up, each member supported by the others but ultimately, their own person.

Uzumaki Kushina was born to a world at war, a world where blood and death and danger was commonplace, and more people knew how to fight than not.

Uzumaki Kushina was born fighting, and she intends to keep it that way.

Uzushio's fall was unexpected; the Land of Whirlpools had always been protected by water, home to a clan of lightning, yet it fell to water and lightning.

(Uzushio was protected by fire; both in the water that turned to flame with the rising and setting of the sun, and with their alliance to Konoha, in the land of fire. When Uzushio fell, no flame offered help.

Kushina remembers, and she may forgive but she does not forget.)

When it fell, she fled to those who offered Sanctuary, offered aid too late, wore the Uzushio spiral on their jackets in what had originally been a sign of alliance and was now a grim reminder. Uzumaki Kushina fled to her grandmother's sister, the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, and discovered her fate.

(It's a burden, but not quite; a curse, but not quite. The Kyuubi no Kitsune is rage and fire and hatred bound in Chakra, and Kushina will hold it. For Konoha, and for Uzushio, all but forgotten.)

"Love him," Mito tells her, "Love him with everything in your young heart, because love always trumps hate."

It becomes a mantra, shifting, eventually, from love him to love, and Kushina finds she doesn't mind, even as she remembers its origins. Uzumaki Kushina loves fiercely, with all her heart, and that translates to her other emotions quite nicely.

She earns the nickname "Red Hot-Blooded Habanero" and she wears it with pride, taking the burning shame of emotions too bright and full to conceal and turning it into a badge of honour.

(Uzumaki Mito wore her hair long, braided into an elegant crown that sat on her head and named her as the princess she is. Kushina wears her hair long too, in an easy-to-grab tail. It's a challenge, she knows it is, and it is one she has no intention of ever losing.)

Mito passes, in due time, and Kushina stands; long red hair and whisker-marked cheeks, container to the Kyuubi no Kitsune and girl seen as a child. She graduates, makes genin, ties her newly-issued Konoha Hita-ate around her forehead, lamenting that it is not Uzushio's.

You would never have been Uzushio's, the Kyuubi grumbles, straining against golden chains. Konoha was always going to take you.

She knows. She knows that from the moment she was born, red-headed granddaughter of Uzumaki Mito's sister, she was destined for Konoha. But the fox is trying to make her hate, trying to twist her the same way some event, far in the past, twisted it. Kushina won't let it.

She is Uzumaki Kushina, Genin of Konohagakure. She will be the first female Hokage, the first Jinchuuriki Hokage and the first Uzumaki Hokage. She is wind and water, a perfect storm, the container of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, and she wears her hair like a challenge and her heart on her sleeve.

Someone's going to stab it, the Kyuubi grumbles, and Kushina grins back, a smile far too wide with far too many teeth.

Let them try, she says, with her smile and her stance and her hair, a ribbon of blood in the wind. Just let them try.

I like you, kid, the Kyuubi says, then he grins a grin to match her own and tells her to call him Kurama.

("Love him," Uzumaki Mito told her, and love him she does.)

Kushina is more in touch with her Bijuu than any Jinchuuriki before her. She lets him free of his chains but not his seal, binds him apologetically and loosely, but the bindings are still there.

She takes his knowledge and she learns from it, greedy, devours everything and anything about seals, about ninjutsu. Kushina isn't great at ninjutsu, isn't a natural, a prodigy, but she is headstrong and focused and she doesn't let something as simple as difficulty stop her.

She launches into learning ninjutsu with a single-minded focus, becomes a powerhouse in her own right.

And then she becomes Chuunin. She's field promoted, heading into her fights with seals in her clothes, poisoned wire in her hair. She wields a sword with scary-deadly efficiency, in a style taught to her by Uchiha Mikoto, when they have spare time.

She's given her flak jacket on the mission, wears it back to Konoha with Kurama grumbling contentedly in her stomach. He's proud of her, and she can't stop grinning.

It's as a Jounin—another field promotion, earned through blood and guts and Kurama's Chakra rising like a wave, her teeth coated with blood and her superior officer's terrified glance—that she really meets Minato, golden hair and a blinding smile and an interest for sealing she hasn't seen anywhere but back at Uzushio. He looks at her like a person, not like a girl or a demon, and he thinks her hair is pretty.

Claim him, Kurama rumbles, and Kushina mentally shuts the gates in his face. She's a ninja first, a lady second, and there is a war.

She came here for a reason, after all, and shoving a blonde jounin up against a wall to make out with him isn't that reason, no matter how hot the guy is.

Uzumaki Kushina walks into Sarutobi Hiruzen's office, announces her desire to become Hokage, and walks back out. Namikaze Minato watches her, caught halfway between awe and disbelief, and falls in love, just a little.

(When Kumo took her as a Chuunin, she tore the head off one of her kidnappers and let blood-red Chakra seep from her pores. Her whisker marks deepened, her teeth sharpened, and her eyes darkened from purple to red. Then she smiled, sweet, with too-sharp teeth, and she tore them all apart.)

It's as a Jounin that she figures out how to let Kurama take his own, physical form; a being of hatred and rage and Chakra trapped in the body of a waist-height fox. She takes to giving him this form in battle, giving him this extra bit of freedom; with the added bonus of scaring the shit out of both her own commanding officers and the enemy ninja.

She takes to walking up and down the lines, in no-man's land, the Kyuubi no Kitsune bounding happily beside her. No-one makes a move.

Kushina grins, and it's all teeth.

(The second time she talks to Minato, it's before she's figured out how to let Kurama take a physical body. He pesters her about seals, about how they work—time and space seals in particular. It's not until he shows her his unfinished version that she understands what he's trying to do, and she laughs and smiles, bright and cheerful. There are no teeth.

"I can help," she says, and Minato practically jumps in excitement. His enthusiasm is contagious, and she soon finds herself just as eager.

"Really?" he says, "Thank-you! Your clan is great at sealing, it's an honour to work with you!"

He doesn't notice his slip-up, and Kushina never corrects him.)

She's there, when Minato gains the nickname "The Yellow Flash". She watches fondly, lips tilted into an amused smile, as her boyfriend makes a name for himself. Kurama rumbles contentedly at her side.

"He's a good choice," he says, letting his tongue loll out of his mouth.

"He is," Kushina replies, still amused. Minato returns to them, half-drenched in the blood of their enemies, pecks Kushina's cheek and ruffles Kurama's fur.

"It works," he says, just as excited as he had been the first time he'd done it.

"It does," she says, smiling bright and wide. "I'm proud of you."

She's a Jounin when the war ends; the Red Hot-Blooded Habanero, girlfriend to Namikaze Minato, and half the time she wants to stab people. Not Minato, of course; he introduces her to everyone with, "This is Uzumaki Kushina, I'm her boyfriend," and she kind of loves him for that.

But she's sick of being the Yellow Flash's girlfriend.

"They'll get over it," Minato assures her, "and if they don't, I'm sure you can make them."

Kushina snorts, because he's right—she left her hair down all through the war; a ribbon of red to make a perfect handhold, yet no-one layed a single finger on the red strands. "I could," she says, agreeable.

Minato looks at her, at her narrowed eyes and her bloodthirsty smile, watches as she cracks her knuckles threateningly and feels himself go a little weak at the knees. "God, I love you," he says, and Kushina laughs again, bright instead of dark this time.

"Of course you do," she says, "I love me too. Ramen for dinner?"

Minato laughs, agrees, and watches his girlfriend—his vicious, dangerous girlfriend—start dinner.

(The first time Uzumaki Kushina had told her boyfriend she loved him, his hand was tangled in bright hair and she was pinning him against the wall of the Hokage tower, like she had wanted too when they first met.

"I love you," she told him, then ducked her head back down to give him another line of hickeys. He had tried to respond in kind, but his voice had been shaky, and he broke off to moan halfway through. Kushina had smirked in response.)

When Sarutobi steps down, he offers Minato the hat. Kushina watches him, eyes narrow, and he refuses to meet her gaze.

Coward, Kurama scoffs. Kushina agrees, wholeheartedly.

"Thank you very much for this honour, Sarutobi-san," Minato says, always the gentleman. She's happy for him, she really is; but Kushina's never made a habit of lying to herself and she knows she's jealous too. "My first act as Hokage will be to resign, and choose a successor. Kushina, how would you like to be Godaime Hokage?"

Sarutobi starts, disbelief written over his face, and Kushina starts laughing, clear and light. "How would I like it?" she says, "It's my dream, y'know!"

Minato smiles, soft and kind and perfect—god, she loves him—and places the hat gently on her head. He turns to Sarutobi, says, "I give you the Godaime Hokage!"

Kushina smiles, vicious and victorious as she can make it, then turns to her boyfriend and softens, slightly.

"My first act as Godaime Hokage," she says, kneels down, "is to ask you to marry me. Be Uzumaki Minato?"

Minato laughs, looks down at her with the most joy she's seen in a while, throws himself into her arms with a half-sobbed, "of course!"

Kushina has Kurama at her side for both her inauguration ceremony and her marriage; they both stand tall and proud, brightly coloured like a challenge, and Minato stands with them.

Because Uzumaki Kushina was born fighting, and she intends to keep it that way.