Kushina sealed her equipment into a small scroll before tucking it into her bedroll. Seven days in one of Konoha's training grounds, alone and unsupervised. It had sounded fun at the time, and like many of the other academy students, she had rushed to sign up.

It only took three hours for Kushina to realize that 'unsupervised' wasn't always a good thing. Undoubtedly, it was a great chance to test her skills. Kushina had to employ many skills she had never thought applicable for survival. Especially testing for paint in her shampoo and salt in her water, courtesy of those charming classmates of hers.

Without teachers to chide cheeky children, Kushina had found herself the butt of many 'prank the foreigner' attempts. Hence the need to keep her supplies sealed in a scroll. Yellow dyed shampoo was not pleasant in the slightest.

Rolling onto her side, Kushina allowed her eyelids to slide shut, carful to keep her scroll tucked under her body. Only to be awakened two hours later by shouts of "Namikaze!" and "Minato-kun!"

Namikaze? Where had she heard that name before? Kushina's sleep riddled mind refused to clear and her thoughts seemed to stumble from one disorientating path to another. Wait... Namikaze... that flake! Was he in trouble? Summoning out three kunai, Kushina stumbled clumsily out of her one man tent.

The eight year olds grumbled mutinously as the foreigner shoved her way through the small ring of students surrounding Minato's tent.

"What happened here?" Kushina yelled at a petite little blonde.

"I-I don't know, I just heard sc-screaming...It was coming from Minato-kun's tent so I thought I'd go out an check..."

"Hey stop it foreigner! Michiko didn't do a thing, stop threatening her!" Yet another blond ordered, Inoichi was it?

Kushina drew herself up to her full, considerable, height. She was less skilled than some of the students here in sparring and she knew it. But she also knew that everyone was wary of her and most of them feared her.

Kushina summoned as much killer intent as she could and spoke, trying to live up to her bloody nickname. "There is no issue here, go to sleep,"

Ignoring the protests of the many fan girls and 'concerned' boys, who only wanted some gossip. Even at the age of eight, Kushina had a plan. It might not have been the right one, but it was a plan. And that plan was to bully everyone into compliance.

Kushina took on a mocking baby voice, at least she tried. For the teachers hiding in the trees, they found her attempts incredibly cute. For the pre-genin students who had never faced anything scarier than a spider, she was the quintessence of scary.

"See these kunai? They are very real and very very sharp. You wouldn't wanna be cut by one of these would you? So you all better do what this foreigner says, back to your tents!" Kushina shouted the last line, leaning forward aggressively.

Instantly, the crowd scattered and the academy students hurried away from the furious redhead.

"Hey flake? You okay in there?" Kushina stepped into Minato's tent boldly, ignoring any hesitance, only to see him lying facing away from her.

"Flake, I know you're awake, might as well stop pretending."

Minato rolled over and sat up slowly, his over bright eyes trained uncertainly on Kushina. "What do you want?" His voice wavered pitifully and Minato clenched his tiny fists, trying to control his emotions.

"The brats out there said you were screaming," Kushina stated nonchalantly. When Minato failed to answer and instead turned his head away, Kushina continued, "So, is it true? Did you have some kind of bad dream, flake?"

Kushina tagged on the nickname as an afterthought, she was starting to feel uncertainty. Plan A had been to storm into the tent and yell and shout until Minato conceded and told her everything, it usually worked. And plan B... Well, there was no plan B. Suddenly both plans suddenly seemed inadequate and tactless. Time to go with Plan Made-up-on-the-spot...

"Minato..." Kushina tried to imitate the whiny voice she had heard Michiko use before, "Is there something wrong? You can tell me, you know that don't you?"

Minato shook his head obstinately and pouted, acting finally like the eight year old he was.

With a sigh of exasperation, Kushina sat herself down next to Minato, forget all these stupid plans! Mother always said shinobi live for the moment anyway!

Kushina then proceeded embrace her true nature, meaning back to Plan A, shake Minato, very hard. "Don't you dare lie to me flake! Tell me what's going on!"

Wincing at the volume Minato watched Kushina curiously. "Kushina? Am I a good boy?"

"What?"

"Am I a good boy? Daddy always frowns at me and mummy always hits me. Did I do something wrong?" Minato's lip was starting to tremble.

"What are you talking about Minato, your mother and father would never do that! They love you!" Or at least Kushina thought they did, she had never seen them before, but every mummy and daddy loved their child.

"No, no, they left because of me, they did! Mummy said so!" Minato had started to tremble and tears were slowly trickling down his face.

Kushina was stunned, what was Minato talking about? She had been expecting him to tell her about some flaky nightmare about a failed test or something, not something as serious, as strange as this! Not something that would leave the flake in tears...

"You wouldn't leave me, would you, Kushina?" Minato seemed to have been reduced to a five year old, "Not like them, not like mummy and d-d-daddy..."

Even at the age of eight, Kushina could tell when someone was becoming hysterical. However, at the tender age of eight she had no idea what to do. The painful slaps she would later give to anyone entering hysterics had not yet developed in her personality. So Kushina emulated what she could remember of her mother.

Kushina pulled Minato into a shaky embrace, trying to remember what the heck to do in this situation. Basic academy training had covered none of this. Kushina began singing, or rather humming, a soft lullaby. One she had heard long ago from her father.

Minato seemed to calm down slightly and whimpered into her shoulder. The melody was beautiful and calming, yet Kushina seemed so small and fragile, surely she would be taken away from him too. The bad men would come again! They would come and take her like they took brother and sister! Or...or maybe they would make Shina-chan hate him and then she would leave...

Minato could feel the omnipresent fear rise up again and he snuggled closer to Kushina, she was relatively tall for her age and he was small, so he fit. He was glad he fit, otherwise Kushi might make him sleep on the floor because she thought he was too big to cry.

Kushina stopped abruptly as she felt Minato tense even more. She was doing something wrong wasn't she? She must have forgotten something that mummy and daddy did to make her feel better.

"More?" Minato looked up hopefully at the girl whose lap he was lying on, whose hair encircled him comfortingly.

The night passed quickly, within fifteen minutes Minato had fallen asleep, but not before untangling himself from Kushina, ever the proper gentleman. Strangely, the fear monster seemed to have disappeared from his belly and Minato slept the rest of the night peacefully.

It started as a grudging friendship and gently evolved into a full blown romance. Many things changed over the years, but there was one constant. Kushina would always sing away Minato's monsters.

Disclaimer: I wrote this over the course of a month so it is a bit wonky. And I don't own Naruto. Don't expect more disclaimers :P

I hope you enjoyed, please review :) (I promise I will complete my Nejiten series of one-shots too, I already have three entries written!)