• Minato Namikaze rounded the street corner and walked over to the front door of one of Konoha's best-known restaurants. He was in a good mood - after all, he had a date with Kushina Uzumaki, a pretty kunoichi from Whirlpool whom he had met during his last mission. She was as unfeminine as they came, but she had character and he was looking forward to seeing what she was like outside of duty. It seemed like she had yet to arrive, though, so he settled down to wait.

    The sun was about to set and he was starting to get worried about her whereabouts, when a loud round of cheers and applause came from within the establishment. Suspicious (he knew those laughs), he pushed the swing doors open and entered the place. Luckily, he hadn't thought to bring any flowers or they would have been crushed under his feet as he rushed inside, not quite believing in what his eyes were telling him.

    The smell of alcohol was intense and he could see that a crowd of people had gathered around the bar and were cheering on two very familiar-looking drinkers. One was short and lithe and the long red hair identified her as his date Kushina. The other had equally long white hair but was much taller, and had no shame in using that advantage to peer down the other's unzipped shirt front - Jiraiya.

    Uncomfortable with all the men ogling his potential girlfriend, Minato quickly elbowed his way over to the front to break up the spectacle. He froze, though, when he saw Kushina drop like a tree, straight into his teacher's lap.

    Despite knowing that the pair was drunk - if the blush on their cheeks wasn't indication enough, then the neat row of sake bottles resting on the counter before them left no room for doubt - the blond jounin still jumped in outrage.

    "Jiraiya," he yelled, "what the hell are you doing?!"

    "Yo, Minato," the older man greeted unsteadily.

    The blond had had the dubious pleasure of seeing him inebriated on many occasions but this had to be one of the worst. At the back of his mind, he was feeling sort of proud that his Kushina had managed to last this long in a drinking match.

    "This her's K'shina. She's a spitf're, th's one," he confided in what was probably meant to be a whisper, but that ended up being audible to just about everyone.

    Minato, however, was quickly forgetting about pride and turning livid. That tone was something else that he had become intimately acquainted with during his training and it spelled nothing but trouble. He did not usually mind it on regular days, but now that it was being used in regards to his love interest...

    "That's my date you're talking about! You stole my..." he would have gone on, but the alcohol had finally caught up with Jiraiya as well.

    The white-haired man fainted headfirst onto the counter, one of his hands sliding dangerously close to the chest of the woman still lying on his lap. Minato saw this and took a deep breath to calm himself down. He took comfort in the fact that neither Kushina nor Jiraiya would likely remember anything in the morning.

    As he picked up the red-head and set out to take her to the house she was staying in, though, he made a mental note to pay an early visit to his teacher the following morning and yell his little hung-over ears off about stealing other people's dates.