There is a really, really pretty girl in Kushina’s class at the academy. The thing Kushina likes best about her is her long, incredibly shiny black hair. No—it’s her narrow and perfectly black eyes. No—it’s the way she always moves like she’s dancing. No—
It’s how she doesn’t look like anyone from Uzushio.
Kushina’s heart still hurts whenever she thinks about her white and red city by the sea. She’ll never go there again, now, not even to see the rubble and the picked-clean bones of everyone she’s ever loved.
Well.
Maybe it’s time to love some new people.
Loving new people is pretty hard in Konoha, because everyone is an asshole. Most of her class calls her Tomato for her red hair—it’s not even the same color as a tomato! It’s a totally different shade of red! A few of the more cowardly ones don’t call her that to her face, but they laugh when other people do. Then there’s Namikaze, who’s too much of a coward to even laugh, and the two Uchiha, who are too dignified.
Kushina doesn’t think her girl—Uchiha Mikoto, her name is—would laugh even if she weren’t dignified. Sometimes when one of the boys calls Kushina Tomato Mikoto’s lips purse a little bit and her eyes get a little harder. Sometimes when Kushina beats them up for it her face smooths out so it almost looks like she’s smiling. But Kushina doesn’t talk to her at all until they get put on the same genin team.
Mikoto introduces herself like this: “I’m Uchiha Mikoto of the second branch house. I aspire to be a competent assassin and diplomat. I like dancing, genjutsu, and poisons. I dislike heavy foods, and those who complain.”
Kushina introduces herself like this: “I’m Uzumaki Kushina, and everyone I know is dead. I’m going to be the Hokage, you know! Just because everyone told me I couldn’t, so fuck them. I like spicy food and climbing trees, and I HATE tomatoes and I HATE most of everyone in my class. Especially the boys. I hate boys, you know.”
The third member of her team, who is a boy, introduces himself in a completely forgettable way, and Kushina doesn’t bother to learn that his name is Kenta for two months. Their jounin instructor is Inuzuka Kiinu, a tall woman with the biggest hair Kushina has ever seen. Kushina immediately wants to be just like her when she grows up. Kiinu-sensei talks loudly and never uses fancy words, but she’s really smart and she has an enormous silver dog and she could probably kill any one of the other jounin instructors. Definitely.
She makes them do a teamwork exercise where they try to hit her even once. Mikoto takes one look at Kenta and nods just slightly to Kushina in a way that means she agrees he’ll be the diversion. She whispers it into his ear, her long hair brushing over his shoulder, and he nods very quickly. Kushina would think it was funny if her gut wasn’t boiling with definitely not jealousy. But Kenta leaves to get in position, and Mikoto shifts closer to murmur, “She said hit her, so senbon are out.” She flicks her wrist and four senbon appear between her fingers. “But they’ll still distract her. How fast are you?”
“Pretty fast,” says Kushina, grinning. “I’ll come from behind her. If I don’t get her, she’ll have to turn and then you can get her, you know. Even better if you use one of your clones.” Mikoto raises an eyebrow at her. Maybe she’s supposed to pretend she doesn’t know Mikoto’s clones are the best in the class.
The plan goes off without a hitch, except that when Kushina punches Kiinu-sensei in the back she turns out not to be Kiinu-sensei. She turns out to be an enormous silver dog named Ginmaru who barks like he’s laughing and snaps his teeth at Mikoto.
That’s when she realizes the third member of her team is missing. “Oi! Ken, uh, Kintarou! Kanaki!”
“Kenta,” says Mikoto, rolling her eyes just a tiny bit.
“Yeah, Kenta, where are you?”
“Your teamwork is awful,” says Kiinu-sensei from the trees. She drops down, holding Kenta by the collar. “You don’t just leave one of your teammates and then forget he exists.”
“Sorry, sensei,” mumbles Kushina. Mikoto doesn’t apologize, but she does perform a shallow bow, which is probably the same.
Kushina doesn’t stop forgetting Kenta is there. Ever, really, even after they’ve become chuunin and been on fifty missions together. As good a ninja as he is, he’s quiet and completely unremarkable. He’ll have a great career in infiltration, someday. For now he just turns up when it’s really awkward or inconvenient.
Take today: they’re training on the banks of the Naka, doing fancy kunai throws at the targets they’ve set up. Cherry petals keep blowing past them from the orchard, and the sun stains the grass green-gold. Mikoto is standing right behind Kushina to adjust her wrist into the right position, so close that her chest brushes Kushina’s back and strands of her hair keep getting in Kushina’s face. Her fingers stay on the back of Kushina’s hand just a little bit longer than necessary—
And Kenta, who is trying to learn an earth release technique, cracks open the ground under them, getting Mikoto’s foot stuck in it. It’s only half an hour later, all three of them sweaty and irritated (but especially Mikoto) they finally manage to hack enough of the rock away with their kunai that she can get free. Now their kunai are dull, Mikoto is pissed, and Kushina is not going to get to flirt back today. She gives Kenta a venomous glare and follows Mikoto back toward Konoha at a distance, sulking. She brightens a bit when Mikoto stops and offers her an elegant arm.
“He’ll grow into himself someday,” Mikoto muses.
“Yeah, and until then he’ll be a pain in the ass. Why can’t everyone learn to be mature when they’re five, like you did?”
Mikoto laughs, a short puff of air from her nose. “When I was five, I was just as much of a disgusting brat as any other five-year-old.”
Kushina puts a hand over her heart and affects shock. “No! An Uchiha admitting that she once drooled on her mother? Surely that’s against some clan law!”
“Go to hell, Kushina,” says Mikoto, looking amused. Kushina beams at her, proud that her best friend has finally unbent enough to swear.
“If I do, you’ll just follow me and bring me back, you know!”
“I’d follow you anywhere, Kushina.”
Kushina slows, tugging on Mikoto’s arm so she turns around to look at her. “Speaking of, I totally know you were flirting with me today. You’re not as subtle as you think you are, you know.”
“What’s the point of being subtle?” says Mikoto. “When you’re flirting, you don’t do it because you’re trying to keep it a secret from the other person.”
Kushina grins and slides one arm around Mikoto’s waist. “Well, you’ve got me now. What’re you gonna do with me?”
“I wonder.” Mikoto is smiling like the cat who ate the canary, circling her arms around Kushina’s neck. “What do you think, Kushina-chan?”
“I think you like being chased too much to kiss me, and you’re waiting for me to make the first move.”
“You’ve learned something about observation from Sensei after all. But just for that I’ll have to prove you wrong, you know.”
“Oh no, that’s the worst possibmmm…”
Mikoto’s lips are just as soft as they look, and her mouth is even hotter than her sweaty arms sticking to the back of Kushina’s neck. Kushina pulls her closer until their hips are touching, which is hot in a totally different way, and bites down gently on her bottom lip. Mikoto hums into her mouth and slides one hand into Kushina’s hair, keeping her from drawing away. Kushina is so okay with that.
It’s not too long before she has Mikoto pressed up against a convenient cherry tree, pushing against her in the most fascinating way. Kushina runs her hands along Mikoto’s sides under her shirt. Her skin is so smooth, like she puts lotion on it every day. Now Kushina’s thinking about Mikoto rubbing lotion all over herself. Mm.
“All right, girls, pack it in.”
Kushina jumps away from Mikoto so fast she nearly sprains her ankle, blushing in mortification. “S-sensei! Um, we, I, um,”
“Slacking off on training,” says Kiinu-sensei, shaking her head. But she’s wearing an amused smile. “Still, at least you waited ‘til you were chuunin. My genin teammates never got fucking anything done, they were so busy making out. I practically made chuunin on my own. Anyway, don’t think you can get out of training just because Kenta-kun is too nice to scold you. Mikoto-chan, you spar with Kenta-kun, that should keep you out of trouble. Kushina-chan, I want to see your progress on that water release technique I showed you last week.”
Mikoto is nearly as red as Kushina’s hair as they go back to the riverbank. Her face is red and her lips look a little swollen and her hair is slightly less than perfect. And Kushina did that to her. She grins. She’s totally inviting Mikoto-chan over for dinner tonight.