Rainy Days

Author: cholericDolphin
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. It belongs fully to Kishimoto Masashi-sama. All I own is my wracked up imagination.

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A rainy day. Most people dislike them. Whether that was because of the mud pools on the streets or because of the wet clothes sticking to the poor bodies of people who were unlucky enough to be forced to go through such a freak of nature without an umbrella. In the end, they all abhorred the wet substance in the same way. They all more or less followed the same routine on every one of those wet days. In the mornings they would get annoyed by looking out of the window and seeing the gray clouds ahead or above them. Later they would mutter curses with every single drop that hit their faces or clothes. At work those people would complain about everything, never forgetting to blame the rain of hell for their soaked hair and clothing which conveniently turned the whole work place into a marsh. And in the evening they would come home, absolutely stressed-out and really bad-tempered, and throw themselves onto their bed after a hot shower or fight with their partner who was in a mood at least twice as bad as their own.Yes, for some people the rain was a very dreadful thing. It probably even forced a loving couple apart at some point in time, although nobody either realized or even wanted to acknowledge that.
But there was one person that especially loved the rain. One that wouldn't do her best to avoid the wet droplets from heaven, just run headfirst into them. She would do her best to catch all of them, twirling around and dancing even in the strongest gale letting the clean water slowly roll down not only her cherubic face but also her slim body until it landed with a quiet soft sound on the earth.
The rain made her happy. Her laughing could be heard even miles away and paint a smile on the faces of the most depressed people. It was simply contagious.
And one boy sitting in a dark classroom on a wet stormy Monday morning benefited most of the current weather.
Namikaze Minato sat in a corner next to the window, observing a pretty red-haired girl going through her daily routine with extra vigor outside in the rain. Running around in circles, grinning from ear to ear so much that her rosy gums were visible and at the same time trying out some fighting-stances. The blonde watched her with astonishment and amazement, his cerulean blue eyes never leaving her twirling form, a small shy smile on his lips and a slight blush across his cheeks. He knew that he liked her. More than you usually like a friend. His heart beating like crazy in his chest and the creepy warm feeling in his gut every time he thought of her told him so. It felt like she made him sick, but in a good way. A very good way.
"You gotta tell her someday, you know?"
Minato almost fell from his chair and turned to the black-haired person behind him.
"Did you have to do that Fugaku? I almost got a heart attack, thank you very much."
Said Uchiha just sighed and laid his head on his propped up arm.
"Do you even know what I've said?"
"…"
It was no use talking to the blonde prodigy again, since their teacher came into the classroom with a very soaked but overly happy Uzumaki Kushina in tow announcing the start of the first lesson. The girl jumped into her seat, which was conveniently situated just in front of the boy who was secretly in love with her. Not that she knew anyway. For her, the blonde was a nice guy you could hang out with from time to time, although he was so shy that he sometimes couldn't get one concrete word out. Of course only around her, though she didn't know that.
Minato was a mystery to her. How could someone so strong and fast, more or less loved by the whole village, praised as the prodigy of this generation of ninja have practically no self-confidence or self-esteem? Every time his mother had started bragging about him, saying what an awesome boy he was, he would look uncomfortable and avert his gaze on the floor while blushing in embarrassment. Often he would add that all the things being said about him were just exaggerations or absolute nonsense, but nobody believed him. And Kushina didn't either after witnessing how he had beaten up a chuunin-teacher in a sparring-match once. The poor flak-vested guy had had to stay in hospital for two weeks, the blonde had been visiting him at least three times a day to apologize and ask if he was alright. Which he still wasn't completely if the slight hobbling was any indication.
Anyways, back to the present. While the chuunin in front of the blackboard rambled on and on about the boring history of the elemental nations and the First Great Ninja War the whole class seemed to be in another world. Kushina, one of the creative people without talent, spent her time doodling something on a piece of paper that distinctively looked like a fish with a water bottle in one of its… fins? Yeah something like that.
The blonde stalker behind her, although shy, was a curious person in general, so he asked her why she drew that, of all things. Her answer left him frowning.
"That's Inoichi-kun with a kunai in his hand! Can't you see it?"
No, he definitely couldn't. But he found it somehow funny that this was how she pictured Inoichi. Minato knew she had an obvious crush on him and that was also the reason the "friendly relationship" between him and the Yamanaka heir became kind of frigid. Not that the pig-tailed boy had any say in the matter, but he knew that the other blond was jealous every time she proclaimed her love to him, and very angry when he rejected her. Not because Minato wanted Kushina to be really happy with Inoichi, but because he did it while insulting and clearly hurting her inside.
Minato had found her in one of the training grounds crying her pretty eyes out way too many times, yet he hadn't managed to gather his courage and console her.
But he had definitely made sure Inoichi got his butt kicked every time. Hard.
Poor guy couldn't even count the numerous bruises on his behind anymore.
Suddenly the bell rang and Minato was brought out of his musings. The children fled from the academy building as fast as they could into the now sunny afternoon, the only exceptions being Shikaku, the lazy bum, and Chouza accompanying him.
After some time and very hard thinking the blonde decided to simply follow his secret crush, there was nothing for him to do anyway. So silently jumping up in a tree and using the "branch-highway" as he called it, he tried to find the fiery red-head. Didn't take him long.
She sat in front of an old ice cream parlor, the one which was mostly frequented by academy students, and luck had it that half his class, including some of his friends like Fugaku, was there as well. He let himself fall down of the tree he currently occupied and casually walked over to the group. I just want to eat some ice cream, not staring at her, nothing suspicious. Minato chanted that short song inside of his head, hoping that no one, especially her, would find out his true intentions.
"Huh, what'cha doing here? Thought you don't like ice cream, Minato." Inoichi helpfully supplied and the blonde had another scenario inside of his head, in which he smashed the moron's head against a brick wall.
"I do like it, I just save my money for more important things." He hoped that this answer would be enough so he wouldn't be bothered anymore, but noooooo.
"Really? What's more important than chocolate chip ice cream with double cream, chocolate sauce and chocolate sprinkles on top?" Of course the only one able to say something like that was Chouza, his huge sundae sitting in front of him while the chubby boy licked his lips in anticipation. He would never eat his "special chocolate bomb sundae" right away, always waiting for the sauce to run down the inner length of the glass bowl in esthetic streaks. Mhh, it really does look tasty…
"Uhh… my… ehm…" Glancing around frantically, albeit discretely, for Minato didn't have any idea right now, he spotted a little shop selling some kind of ninja stuff. Sealing equipment to be exact.
"Sealing stuff." He finished lamely, until he registered his big big error.
"Wooow, you're going to be a sealing master?"
"Isn't that really difficult?"
"That sounds so cool! Can we see you making something?" And there it was. The dreadful sentence that changed his life forever. The blonde couldn't just say 'no', that would be really rude on the one hand, and they wouldn't believe him and he would expose his stalking activities on the other. Or so he thought. So the only answer was…
"Sure, I've got some time next week, if you want to." He said, desperately thinking about who could possibly give him a crash course in the art of sealing. Right now the only one coming to mind was the Sannin Jiraiya-sama, who conveniently was Minato's neighbor since last month. Gotta ask him when I get back in the evening…
"Awww, you're so awesome, Minato-kuuuun!" There went his fangirl army.
"Can you teach me something, too? –winks with her eyelashes- "
"Please go out with me?" One of the more hopeless cases.
"Ahh, no, I- I think I have to go-" He muttered and started to make his way out of the mass, or at least he tried to. Why are there so many! I didn't even notice them approaching…
"What about your ice cream?" Chouza asked, a scandalized look on his plump face and some chocolate sauce dripping out of the corner of his mouth. At least that made some of the fangirls back off…
"What about Kushina?"
Minato immediately turned his head to the source of the voice so fast everyone could swear they'd heard something snap. Fugaku's gaze was innocently fixed on the clouds, mimicking Shikaku to a T.
"What about her?" The counter question was said in such a stiff manner that some of the people standing around them thought a robot had said that.
"Well, you like her, right? So why do you want to go already?"
That somehow got Kushina's attention, more than Minato would have wanted.
"Eeeeh? You actually like me?" Her face was one of pure shock and had Minato not been standing there, completely frozen with a face so red it could easily beat a tomato and his expression one of such saintly pristine embarrassment, she would have been the center of attention.
Somehow the whole world started to spin around the blonde and he could barely contain his breathing. Now his huge secret was out. All the time he tried his best to be discreet, all the work he had put into this, all gone now. Useless. Now that she knew she would feel creeped out by him and would try her best to avoid him. Maybe she would even move out of town so she would never have to see him again? Ok, now Minato broke into hysterics, but that didn't matter at that point. As the boy felt the hot salty tears start to prick his eyes he hightailed it out of there, running as fast as his legs could carry him, ignoring the shouts of the persons left behind. But Minato didn't care at all. And somehow ended up in a forest. Alone. And don't ask me why, but it had begun to darken. Just for the heck of it, it seems. And of course it had to start raining again. Once more, just for the heck of it.
There he was now, in the middle of an unknown forest, a.k.a. the frickin' middle of nowhere, shaking, because of the cold rain, crying his eyes out, mourning his love, who probably hated him now anyways, and hungry. God, he should've just snatched Chouza's sundae. But then the chubby boy would've killed him on the spot. Sighing, he hugged his knees to his chest, sitting under a tree and waiting for the blasted downpour to stop.
"Man, you're a moron."
Minato jumped from his seat, staring at the panting form before him and briskly turning red.
"K-Kushina…"
"I told you! 'Wait!' and 'Please stop already!' but that didn't seem to get into your head, huh? By the way, where the heck are we?" She asked seemingly not noticing the blonde's embarrassed face and the fact that he had backed off and now stood with his back pressed against the tree.
"What are you doing here…?" The sobbing boy choked out between sniffles.
She sighed dramatically before plopping down on the now muddy grass.
"'Cause you obviously like me, and I've followed you, duh!" The red-head answered, looking straight ahead and sparing her companion the painfulness of being seen while new burning tears rolled down his flushed cheeks.
"S-So? You like Inoichi-san, meaning you d-d-don-" He cut himself off as another sob wrecked his small frame and he didn't trust his own voice anymore. He just couldn't bring himself to say this one particular sentence.
"Like him? At first I did, but after two rejections I've been over it. I just annoyed the fag with that so the one I actually did like would become jealous."
Minato just stared. Was this girl for real? That plan sounded kind of mean, and stupid, considering that the boy she seriously was in love with never had the chance to find out. There was a long silence between them, until the blonde's curiosity got the better of him.
"A-And, who is it?" He asked shyly, dreading the answer, but he simply had to know. Without that tidbit of information he would never find peace. The answer was kind of artless, to say the least.
A pointed look into his eyes and a fierce kiss directly after that.
That day Namikaze Minato found out that he loved rainy days even more than he had initially thought.

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Wow, can't stop writing lately! This one-shot came to me while showering -cough-obviously-cough-... anyways! Hope you enjoy that one, since I certainly enjoyed it! I suppose I'm trying out different writing styles right now, since all of my stories are very different, but wayne... tried to make this one kind of poetic with some (maybe) hidden humor and something akin to mystery I believe... Please tell me if I managed to do that! LOL I could really need some constructive criticism here... and with my future-fic, too. -.-