The troops had been called home and treaties had been signed, the war was over. The village hidden in the leaves was in celebration, it was the first time in months that everyone was able to relax. The streets were littered with ninja and villagers, all shouting and drinking in celebration. The excitement of the day escaped no one and even the hardest of shinobi was found grinning and enjoying a cup of sake with his comrades.

Minato was no different, after touring the streets for a few hours and enjoying the festivities he finally settled at an overcrowded bar. He had originally been in search of his sensei, Jiraiya, but hadn't found him yet, the man was probably in a brothel. Instead, he had come across the famous ino-shika-cho trio. They were considered the best team the Leaf had ever produced; when all three fought together they were unstoppable. Their only vice was that they liked to drink, a lot, and had now roped Minato into a drinking contest.

"Another round, Barkeep!" Inoichi called over the laughter and yelling.

Minato didn't know if he would be able to keep this up much longer he had already drank five whole bottles of sake by himself and was on his sixth. Shikaku had already passed out and was lying under the table, Inoichi was about to follow him while Choza was guzzling down his tenth bottle of sake. Minato couldn't compete with the Akimichi, though he was pretty sure Tsunade could give him a run for his money in a drinking contest.

A sudden hazy blob of red stumbled into him, knocking the empty cup out of his hand and into oblivion. The blob had begun to giggle madly as it struggled to stand up on its own and Minato found that he couldn't help but smile like an idiot. The red blob stumbled again this time causing Minato to lose his own balance and falling from his chair taking the blob with him.

The last coherent thought he would be able to remember the next day was that the red giggling blob was fun.

XxX

Kushina groaned as she began to wake up, she swore right then and there that she would never drink again. She meant it this time, really. She attempted peeking one eye open and instantly regretted it as the sunlight caused a sharp pain to shoot through her already pounding head. She really needed to learn some basic medical ninjutsu for mornings like this.

She gave another moan in agony and debated either going back to sleep or roll out of bed in search for a hangover cure. She was leaning more toward going back to sleep when she realized that there was a weight over her stomach. The more she cleared the cobwebs from her head the more she realized that this odd weight was warm and appeared to be wrapped around her instead of just laying on her.

She opened her eyes and lifted her blanket up so she could see this weight and determine what it was. What she saw made her feel sick. She was not only naked but the weight appeared to be an arm, a man's arm.

What the hell did she do last night?

She pulled the cover back down, forcing herself to breath. After a few more moments of concentrated breathing she worked up the nerve to roll over and see who she had 'celebrated' with last night. It was worse than she could have imagined. It wasn't that he was bad looking by any stretch of the imagination and she had harbored a secret crush on him for the last few years. It was that Minato Namikaze was her friend, one of her best friends, and he had no idea of her feelings for him nor did he seem to return these secret feelings.

This was bad; this was very, very bad. She needed to get out of here before he wakes up and freaks out like she was doing now. Ever so slowly, so as not to disturb him, she began to pull away. Her plans were foiled however when his grip on her tightened and he pulled her closer to him. She desperately tried not to think about how warm his skin was against hers and re-focused on her escape but it was hard when his lags were tangled with hers and he was rubbing small circles on her hip.

Wait, what?

Her neck cracked as she snapped it up to look at him, his eyes were still closed but he would wake up any moment now. She was panicking as she desperately tried to think of what to do. Maybe she should pretend to be asleep? He shifted on the bed and yawned, there was no time for anything else as she snapped her eyes shut and lay limp in his embrace. The next step was to slow her heart rate down, she'd prefer for it just to stop altogether because she definitely just wanted to curl up and die.

"Mmm." She heard him mumble and she forced her heart beat down again.

XxX

The first thought Minato had that morning, was that he was pleasantly warm. The second was that he would never have a drinking contest with Choza ever again; the man was unreal when it came to sake consumption. He gave a wide yawn as he tried to remember what had happened the night before; the last thing he could remember was a giggling red blur. How weird, maybe the blur had been a person, but whom?

"Mmm." He mumbled just as he realized that he was holding something, or rather a someone. Was it the red blur?

He focused all his energy on opening his eyes, which turned out to take a lot more energy than it normally would have had he not had a hangover. This was definitely the red blur; he knew this because all he saw was lots and lots of red hair. He felt his heart stop as the name of the only person with that much red hair in the whole village flew into his mind.

Kushina Uzumaki, the only girl his age that was single and didn't chase him around like a love sick puppy.

He had liked Kushina for a few years now. He had wanted to ask her on dates but between the war and all the missions involved with it plus losing Obito, he just hadn't had time. He wasn't even sure she liked him beyond friendship and this situation they had landed themselves in would probably ruin any chances he had to start with not to mention their friendship.

He needed a plan and he needed it quick. He could always use his infamous jutsu and get the hell out of there before she woke up. But what if she remembered what had happened last night? What would she think if she did remember and he wasn't there? She would hate him so that ruled that option out. He was about to think of another plan when he noticed it.

He deadpanned. "You're awake, aren't you." It wasn't a question it was a statement.

He watched as she frowned at being caught and peeked an eye open at him. It took all his self-control not to smile at how adorable she looked.

"Hi." She said in a tiny voice that was cute as well but just didn't belong coming from her.

"Hey." He said back because really he had no idea what to say.

She turned her eyes away from him and pulled the sheets tighter around her chest. He wasn't exactly sure why, they were both very naked and touching under the sheets. He desperately wished he could remember what had happened last night, especially since this was his first time having sex.

"I, uh, know this isn't the exact order things are supposed to go, but would you like to go out for breakfast? Or lunch, I'm not really sure what time it is." He rambled. When he pictured himself asking Kushina out for the first time this wasn't what he pictured.

She blushed so red that it blended with her hair as she turned to look back at him. "Sounds good to me, only we have to pretend this never happened." She said quickly.

That was the Kushina he knew! When in doubt deny it all until years later when you could laugh about it.

"I'm good with that." He said agreeing with her twisted logic for the first time.

"Good." She affirmed. "So, uh, how do we get out of bed if this never happened?"

"Good question." He said with no real answer. This pretending that what happened didn't happen was harder than it looked.