A/N So before I get this underway, hey friends.

This story was originally on a writing tumblr blog, but i've migrated here. This is my very first multi-chapter, so bear with me.

I hope you enjoy this! I love Minato and Kushina, and I like the idea of filling in all their missing memories.

Happy reading :)

disclaimer; I don't own naruto

Minato flinched as Hiruzen snapped the record book shut. He refused to look the old man in the eyes. Minato knew how much trouble he was in. Having just become a Jonin, you really weren't allowed to take on S-rank missions by yourself.

Hiruzen sighed as he placed the record book down, and took off his Hokage's hat. The unruly brown hair a matted mess underneath. The older man pinched the bridge of his nose as if he had a killer headache, which wasn't very far from the truth. Minato was an excellent ninja, but a bit uncontrollable when it came to those important to him. The blond was known for his sharp wit and surprising accurate instinct. He was the best sensor-type ninja Konoha had ever had, and yet, Hiruzen couldn't seem to get through to Minato, and tell him to relax.

"Honestly Minato," Hiruzen drawled out "What am I going to do with you?"

Minato had heard this speech many times before, usually from his mother. Many times Minato would come home in the late hours after missions and find his mother on the couch, waiting for him. He would get the same speech every time "Oh Minato, my son, what am I ever going to do with you?"

He couldn't blame her though. Being ninja always suffered a loss of some sort. Ever since Mitsuo Namikaze had been killed by one of the seven swordsman of the Hidden Mist, Minato's mother struggled to understand how her son was the Leaf's most valuable asset. Although, from a mother's perspective, hearing that your sixteen year old son was the most favourable candidate to become the next Hokage seemed like a hard pill to swallow. Nonetheless, Azumi Namikaze knew her son was a bright boy, and tried her best to keep him safe.

Hiruzen waited patiently, hoping for Minato to speak. When Minato didn't look up, Hiruzen inclined "That question wasn't rhetorical, what am I going to do with you?" He asked again.

Minato's head shot up, and his embarrassment was evident. He was being scolded, he knew. However, Minato didn't think this was something worth being scolded over! He saved someone from the Hidden Leaf village; they captured Kushina, his friend! (Well, sort of.) Obviously she was valuable if someone from the Hidden Cloud went out of his or her way to come and get her, why was he being yelled at?

"I don't understand Lord Third, didn't I do the right thing?"

"The question is not about whether you did the right thing, or the wrong thing, Minato. The point is that you went alone, you didn't think!"

"There was no time sir! I'm the fastest here and you know it!" Minato immediately stopped talking, he hadn't meant to shout. He definitely hadn't meant to disrespect the third, but he couldn't grasp what was the big deal, he'd won hadn't he?

Hiruzen sighed for what seemed like the millionth time that night, and rubbed his face with his hands. In a small voice, Hiruzen spoke quietly;

"You could have died, Minato. We could have lost both Uzumaki Kushina, and yourself. Bring back up next time, now get out of my office, go home, and bandage that wound."

Minato was begging to protest back at what the third had said, but held his tongue. The blood from the wound in his arm was dripping onto the hardwood floor, and for a moment, the only sound in the room was a tender drop into the already existing pool of crimson.

"Thank You, Lord Third." Minato said gently, bowed quickly, and left the room.

He closed the door behind him as he left the third's office. He rounded the hall, holding his injured arm with one hand. It seems like the wound re-opened as he carried Kushina back to the village, perhaps the third was right. He shouldn't have gone alone, especially with a previous injury.

Blowing the bangs out of his face, he descended the steps to the door of the Hokage's mansion. As he exited, and his face got a cool taste of the night air, he noticed a familiar red head sitting on a bench to his left.

Kushina looked up when she saw the door close, and immediately rushed over to Minato. He hadn't expected her to be waiting out this long, well actually- he hadn't expected her to be waiting at all. It was almost five in the morning, and the orange rays in the east signalled the sun would rise fairly soon.

"Kushina, what are you doing here?"

Kushina had blushed, and ignored his question. She kept her eyes glued to his, searching for any sort of injury or discomfort. When she saw his grimace, her eyes roved to the red seeping out from beneath his fingertips of his right hand. Gasping sharply, she whispered "Minato, your arm!"

Minato had to resist every urge not to be sarcastic, of course it was his arm, anyone could see that. When he was with Shikaku and Inoichi, it was fine to joke with them. However, he didn't want to upset Kushina, firstly because he got a first hand experience with making her mad. Secondly, they had both been through a lot today and all he wanted to do was sleep.

"Yeah, it'll be okay though, it's an old wound." He shrugged

"Why didn't you say anything? You didn't have to carry me all the way home," She chided "I can walk ya know."

He smiled sheepishly, but remained silent. She clicked her tongue at him, and started walking. Gesturing for him to follow with her pointer finger, Kushina lead Minato to the left side of the village, and a five minute walk later, they had arrived at Kushina's home.

"Kushina, you don't have too-"

"Shut up, you saved me so I guess now we're even." She finished.

"Fair enough."

She slid open the door quietly, and kicked off her sandals. Seeing that Minato had blood all over his hands, and was sort of struggling to kick off his own, Kushina knelt down and did it for him. Minato blushed; having someone wait on him was a different feeling.

Now barefoot, both teenagers padded silently down the halls of Kushina's house. Minato followed after her at a steady pace, but his exhaustion was evident. Where did this girl get all this energy?

They finally reached a door, and Kushina opened it. Upon looking inside, Minato wanted to run in the other direction. This was Kushina's bedroom. Her actual room, a girl's room! It was 5:01 in the morning, and Kushina was bringing a boy into her room? Did she have a death wish?

"Kushina, I don't think I should go in there." Minato whispered

She scoffed, "What? You afraid? Relax Namikaze, I'm not going to kiss you or whatever, Jiraiya sensei has rubbed off on you."

Minato blushed, and looked down at his feet. He didn't mean it like that.

Upon seeing his reaction, Kushina's face softened. "Hey," She whispered and Minato looked up to meet her eyes "I was just teasing, but don't worry, both my parents are on a mission, I figured out that much when I came home to find them gone."

Minato visibly relaxed, and nodded his head encouragingly. All right, this was good; at least he wasn't going to have to face some angry parents.

They entered her bedroom together, and Minato had to admit it was very clean. He had expected it to be messy because of Kushina's personality, but she was exceptionally neat. A bed lay in the centre against a back wall, a chest of drawers on the opposite. She had a small table beside her bed with a single lamp and picture, and finally, a large window against one of the walls, it was open, and the curtains were billowing with the passing breeze.

"Wait here." She said, and she swiftly ran out of the room.

Minato didn't know what to do with his time waiting, so he stayed where he was. However, he couldn't stop his wandering eyes from reaching the picture on her beside table. From his position, it looked to be a photograph of Kushina and two other girls. They were sitting on a dock, feet dangling in the water. A large village was in view behind them, big stone buildings towering above. He walked over to it and studied it intently; Kushina barely looked about seven, and the two girls beside her about as old as they were now.

"Those are my cousins," A voice Minato immediately recognized as Kushina's piped up. He drew away from the photo intently and saw Kushina holding a bowl of hot water, bandages, scissors and a washcloth. "We got separated during the fall of our village, Whirlpool. That's it in the back."

"Its so... big." Minato said.

Kushina smiled sadly, "It was one of the biggest villages in the formerly six great nations. Ever since the war, the number of nations has been brought down to five, and our whole village wiped out. My clan has been spread throughout this land, separated."

"I'm sorry."

Kushina shrugged "There's nothing to be sorry for, it wasn't your fault."

Minato was silent for a moment, before he asked, "Why did the Hidden Cloud capture you?"

Kushina paled instantly, and this didn't go unnoticed by Minato. She looked down at the bowl of water in her hands, and replied "Sit on my bed please, the water is getting cold."

Curious, but mindful of her feelings, Minato did as he was told. He guessed Kushina would tell him when she was ready. Obviously it wasn't something that she could flaunt about. But if this secret she kept was so valuable, then he needed to know. He was a Jonin, and protecting Konoha and its citizens was something he needed to do.

Kushina, she was a chuunin, and dabbled a little bit in medical ninjutsu, so she could take care of herself quite well. Minato knew of her abilities, and saw her use sealing funjutsu before, an obvious delicacy of her clan. Lady Mito was a member of the same clan Kushina was, so Minato knew not to take the Uzumaki women too lightly.

Minato sat on her soft bed, while she dipped the washcloth in water. She was about to apply the liquid to his wound, when she noticed an obvious roadblock.

"Um," Now it was Kushina's turn to blush. "You need to take your shirt off."

Minato's face turned red in earnest, matching the shade of Kushina's hair. His mouth formed a little 'o' and he tried as best as he could to do this as quickly as possible. However, he couldn't move his arms without irritating the injured one, so he was stuck in a bind.

"Kushina-"

"Yes?"

"I can't move my arms."

"Oh."

Both parties were silent, and the atmosphere was so thick, you could cut it with a knife. Feeling a bit brave, but incredibly awkward, Kushina reached over with both hands, hooked her fingertips under the hem of Minato's mesh top, and pulled it upwards.

His harsh gasp noted her to be gentle, the wound on his arm was still open, and if she went too fast, the fabric would scratch against it, causing him more pain. She went slowly, itching the material up agonizingly slow. First the good arm slipped out, then his head, and finally, the material was bunched up against his bad arm. She delicately peeled away the material that had stuck to his skin with the blood that had dried there, and finally, the whole shirt was off.

Smiling triumphantly, Kushina folded the shirt, and laid it down on her bedroom floor, she would take it to the laundry later.

Looking back to Minato, she became painfully aware of a half naked sixteen-year-old boy sitting on her bed.

But, he happened to be certain sixteen-year-old boy who she seemed to have a very large infatuation with. She was living every girl in Konoha's dream. Minato Namikaze, the most admired teenager in town, was shirtless on her bed!

Reminding herself to breathe, and to not look at Minato's well-built upper body, she went back to her bowl and washcloth. Re-soaking the material in the now warm water, and squeezing some of it out. Kushina applied a gentle pressure to the cut, and started cleaning it slowly.

Minato watched her, and both of them didn't speak for the time being. She repeated the process: soak, squeeze, clean, repeat. Minato couldn't remember a time when he was cared for so thoroughly like this. On missions, it was usually have a medic ninja close the wound, and you cleaned it yourself. It was usually just to make procedure go faster, the main thing just was to avoid infection, and as long as there was no open skin, you were fine.

Having been satisfied with her job at getting the cut clean, she focused some chakra into her fingertips. After 30 seconds, they started glowing, and through the light of Kushina's lamp, he could see a soft green colour.

"Bear with me," she said, "I'm still getting the hang of this."

"Its okay," he whispered back "You've done a lot already."

"Why are you whispering?" She giggled softly

"Oh," he whispered then corrected himself. "I don't know." he smiled.

She shook her head, and went to concentrating on closing the wound. Her brows furrowed, and her eyes closed. Minato watched her in fascination. Medic ninjas were in a whole different ballpark, it was one thing to use ninjutsu for destruction, but a whole other to use it for re-creation.

Minato's eyes went from the beautiful redhead to his now closing wound. The skin stretched together, and fused, effectively stopping the bleeding and the risk of infection.

Kushina relaxed, and removed her hands, breaking out into a wide smile when she laid her eyes on the now closed wound. She sighed contentedly, and let out a soft "I actually did it."

Minato smiled warmly at her, and relaxed his arm. Feeling much better, and very sleepy, all Minato wanted to do was to close his eyes...

"Hey! You're not done yet!" Kushina snapped

Minato's eyes snapped open, and saw her unrolling the bandage tape, and cutting a fair bit off with a pair of scissors. She gently gripped his bicep, and starting wrapping the bandage around the wound.

"Just in case." she said.

"Oh, right." He was silent for a moment, before murmuring "Kushina?"

"Hm?" She asked, wrapping the bandage around his arm delicately, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," He said a little too quickly, and cleared his throat before continuing, "Were you scared?"

She stopped wrapping his arm for a moment, and stared for a long time. Minato wasn't sure she was breathing, and he could tell she was trying to tread carefully.

"Yes," She finally said, "But its something I must deal with."

"What do you mean?" Minato questioned, "Being scared?"

Kushina nodded, "That, and something else. Don't worry to much though, we're ninja, being scared is something we have to get used too."

Minato looked down at his hands as she continued wrapping his bandage, he twiddled his thumbs while he waited for Kushina to finish. He was about to remain quiet, when he spoke quietly, "I'm sorry if I ever made you feel badly before."

Kushina looked at him as he said this, and amusement twinkled behind her features, "Its sweet of you to apologize when you don't have too."

"I feel bad," Minato sighed, "You never really deserved to be treated that way. I'm sorry I didn't step in."

Kushina smiled, and tied the bandage off when she was done with it. She patted his now bandaged arm, and whispered tenderly, "Its okay Minato, you were always very nice to me. Thats all that matters."

Minato grinned at her, glad she wasn't upset after all the times he supposedly ignored her. Kushina was gathering up her medical tools, and Minato watched her. She quickly ran from the room, and came back to see Minato still up and waiting, hoping she would say more.

"Aren't you tired?" She asked

"A little," Minato smiled sheepishly, "But I don't want you to be kicked out of your room."

Kushina waved her hands, "Don't worry about it, you've already got blood on my comforter anyway, I'll wash in tomorrow."

Minato whipped his head around to see the spots of red on her blue sheets, "Sorry."

"Its okay, nothing that can't be washed out."

"Kushina?"

"Yeah?" She said, leaning in the doorframe.

"Thanks for all this, you really didn't have too."

Kushina's eyes widened, and she walked over to Minato, feeling a bit bold, she actually leaned down and kissed his cheek. She barely ghosted his skin, but she felt as if her gesture came across as effective, because Minato was soon blushing.

"I really should be thanking you," Kushina answered, "If it weren't for you, i'd be a goner by now."

Minato rubbed the back of his neck, "a-anytime." He stammered.

Looking out the window, Kushina let out a loud sigh, "Well, I don't know about you, but i'm going to sleep. I hope you'll be hungry tomorrow morning, because I'm pretty good at making cereal."

Minato laughed softly, "Okay, goodnight."

"Night Minato."

Kushina shut the door behind her, and padded across the hall to the guest room where she would be sleeping. Peeling back the covers, and getting into bed, she couldn't help the sleepy satisfied smile from forming. As the sun peeked over the horizon, and Kushina fell asleep, she dreamed with visions of what her life would be like, with Minato suddenly in it.