Despite popular opinion, I did not have a crush on Namikaze Minato, the reason being that I was not a pedophile. I just admired him for his intelligence and work ethic. He managed to become the Fourth Hokage while being an orphan with no bloodlines. His mastery over fuinjutsu (a subject I was still struggling with) was so great that he managed to recreate the second Hokage's flying thunder god technique and was able to seal the strongest bijuu in a baby without any previous preparation or mokuton.

I wondered how much better he would be if he recieved teachings from an actual Uzumaki instead of Jiraiya.

"Mito-sensei, how do you feel about taking another student?" I asked as practiced speed writing kanji (an essential skill of a seal master, according to my teacher).

Mito-sensei hummed. "I would not be averse to the idea, if I find someone worthy. Why? Did you have someone in mind, Mishika-chan?"

"There's a boy in our class. He's kind of like a genius. I think he'd be really good at fuinjutsu." I answered. "He's not a clan child and is an orphan, still he's at the top of the class."

"Oh? Is it that Minato boy Kushina was telling me about?" Mito-sensei's voice took up a teasing tone.

"Whatever Kushina has told you about him is a lie because Kushina is a lying liar who lies." I was momentarily shocked by my childish outburst that I had to take a few seconds to recompose myself, while Mito-sensei giggled. "I meant that Kushina has been misunderstanding the situation, Mito-sensei." I continued after clearing my throat.

"Of course." She agreed, somberly. "You can bring him to the compound after classes. I'll assess him to see if he has any potential to learn fuinjutsu."

"Thank you." I replied, smiling gratefully. "You will not regret it."

My decision to get Minato to the sealing lessons wasn't completely altruistic. Even though I didn't have a crush on him, I wished to become friends with him. For one, he was infinitely more mature than the other children my age and I couldn't just rely on Shikaku for any intelligent conversation. Secondly, he was a natural genius in almost all the shinobi arts. Training with him would benifit me by setting a higher bar, ultimately leading me become a more skilled shinobi.

Kushina, however, took this as a confirmation of her being right all along.

"Baa-chan said you wanted to bring Minato to the sealing lessons." She asked, sitting dawn on the desk next to me, smirking.

"I did." I answered as indifferently as I could.

"Ha, I knew it." She shouted and fist bumped into the air.

"Kushina, I just want to be his friend. It's nothing untoward." I said, asking whatever god was out there to get that girl's mind out of romance. To my surprise, Kushina didn't follow up her proclamation with any more lewd comments. Instead, she was looking at me contemplatively.

"What?" I asked, suddenly afraid. Surely, no good would come out of a contemplative Kushina.

"I'm not going to tease you anymore." She declared.

"Why?" I said, reflexively. "Not that I want you to tease me. I'm just curious as to what changed your mind."

She scowled. "Baa-chan asked me to. She said that you were shy. And I was only teasing you because you lied to me when I asked you about him the first time. Now you admitted to wanting to be his friend. That is good enough for me, I suppose."

I knew that if I didn't clear this up right away, this was going to cause problems in future. But I was so relieved that she wasn't going to tease me anymore, that I decided to take anything I was getting.

Inviting Minato turned out to be a bit trickier.

"Namikaze-san." I called out as I saw the blonde leaving the classroom, ignoring the giggling around me.

He turned around and turned red as he spotted me. "Aah, Nara-san. How may I help you?" He asked, stammering.

Uh oh.

"Look kid, I don't care what Kushina has been spreading, I don't have a crush on you." I snapped at his blushing face.

That brought him up short. "You don't?" He asked, his face returning to normal. "Wait, did you just call me a kid? Aren't you a year younger than me?"

"I'm older in soul." I told him the truth. "Look, I wanted to ask if you wished to attend some sealing with Kushina and me. Uzumaki Mito us our sensei."

"Really? Mito-sama?" His blue eyes actually started glowing. "Of course, I am honoured to be given a chance to attend. Thank you so much for inviting me, Nara-san."

"Call me Mishika. Less chances of mixing up with Shikaku." I offered.

"Mishika-san. Please call me Minato then." He bowed, making me feel bad that an actual orphan had better manners than me.

That was when my brother, as if summoned by his name, appeared. "What's going on here?" He asked, crossing his arms, trying to appear stern. Given that he was a seven year old chibi, it looked more cute than intimidating.

"Ah, Nara-san. Mishika-san invited me to her sealing classes. I was merely thanking her." Minato answered, beaming. Okay, maybe he was a bit less inteligent than I was giving him credit for.

Shikaku's frown deepened.

"Oh, calm down, nii-chan. Minato likes Kushina, not me." I blurted out, before realising that I had no way of knowing that.

"Wha... Wait, how did you know?" Minato flailed, as Shikaku relaxed back to his lazy slouch. God, save me from brothers.

"It's kind of obvious." I answered Minato, lying through my teeth. I had never seen him around Kushina.

"Oh no. Does Kushina-san know too?" He asked nervously.

"Umm...no. If you haven't noticed yet, she's kind of dense."

Minato frowned at that. "That's not a nice thing to say."

"It's true, though." I shrugged.

"Kushina-san is talented in other areas. She is so spirited and determined...." He began.

"Okay. Maybe I can hear all about Kushina's great qualities some other time. We have to go to the Senju compound now. Mito-sensei doesn't like it when we're late."

"Yosh." Minato's grin was back. "Let's learn some sealing."

And that was how Namikaze Minato became my friend.