The Bell

-UchidaKarasu-

"All you have to do is get the bell."

The five-year-old just stared at the taller blonde, raising one fine silver eyebrow, and Namikaze Minato sighed. Figured that the last Hatake would look at him like he was slightly more interesting than a bug on the ground. Obviously the kid was reluctant, leery, and who was exactly to blame him? Village turns a nose at the child because of who his father happens to be and yet this kid was clearly worth watching. Kid's a fucking genius, to tell the truth.

Finally the young boy asked in a monotone, "Get a bell?" Deep grey eyes narrowed as if searching Minato's face for a lie, but the blonde wasn't lying. He was actually anxious to see what this kid was like. Rumours had spread about him being a prodigy in a way that even Minato couldn't compare, which was a large claim. But the kid had graduated the Academy at five, a full year before the blonde had accomplished the feat. Already homeless, battle-hardened, with no family to return to. The perfect shinobi, this boy had the potential to be. That is, if only the child could be honed by the ideals of the village.

But that wasn't exactly why Minato had taken the kid on; having only been a Jônin for barely three months, around the same time Kakashi graduated initially, it was unheard of for someone of his calibre to take up a Genin student. Jônin shinobi new to the force completed A- and S-ranked missions, joined ANBU...something other than teaching a kid to be a tool. And besides, Minato was prodigious (although said blonde didn't really think about it, for it tended to embarrass him) enough to train two teams at once, but with barely any experience in all matters 'kid', Minato couldn't really comprehend what he was supposed to do. After all, Minato was nothing short of a kid himself. Fourteen years of age and he was already taking up a student.

Not that he would've declined the offer by Sarutobi-sama. Besides the obvious reason of not being able to really say no to the Sandaime Hokage, he was curious beyond belief, and besides, if Hatake Sakumo's kid spent any more time without a Jônin trainer, he was just going to end up doing something stupid and hurting himself.

"Yeah. This bell." For good measure, and perhaps just to be a bit sarcastic, Minato flicked the cool metal dangling off his belt and smiled nostalgically at the sound. Somehow, he doubted that Kakashi would be tied up to a stump at lunchtime, like Minato himself had been forced to doing, because Jiraiya-sensei was just a jerk when it came to that aspect. Of course, if Minato hadn't tried to steal the bento boxes from the stump in the first place in a measly attempt to quell the grumbling from his abdomen, he wouldn't've ended up tied up to a dead tree anyway. Oh well, the test was a good one, and it definitely would give the blonde an insight to what the five-year-old was capable of. After all, he couldn't refuse to not train the kid. Minato was stuck with him, and that was all there was to it.

Needless to say, Namikaze was damn well impressed that it only took the kid two and a half hours to get the bell, due to his interesting mix of chakra manipulation to fling himself through the air like a cat and shock the Jônin—quite literally—with blue tinged, tiny fingers (damn electric chakra manipulation; the kid was five and he shouldn't know how to manipulate chakra types yet, for Kami's sake!)

Well, thought the fourteen-year-old with a throughoutly amazed chuckle in the stoic boy's direction, at least I don't have to take on a complete idiot. Only the best from Sakumo's brat.

When Kakashi took the Chûnin exams, Minato nearly had a heart attack.

The three man team that he had been assigned to was some kid with a very strange haircut and overwhelming eyebrows and another little wimp that did nothing but hit on girls all the time. But the two had been desperate for a third member of their group as the girl from their team had chickened out, and neither one of them really cared that Kakashi was the son of the disgraced White Fang. They were all different ages, the blonde about twelve and the loud one having just turned nine, while the Hatake was only six and not as charismatic as the other two.

The exams were a piece of cake for the three of them being smart as hell, although not nearly on the level of Kakashi's genius, and the Forest of Death was practically a breeze after taking out one of Sand's teams that had qualified. That blonde was a downright beast when it came to weapons and poisons, the black haired boy was clearly a taijutsu fiend on the battlefield, and Kakashi was just...well...Kakashi.

Prelims were interesting. Kakashi was paired against a Mist nin, and hence the reason why Minato had had a heart attack while sitting in the stands with his sensei and eating dango from the Uzumaki Bakery down the road with that cute little Whirlpool girl that liked to pull pranks on his unsuspecting persona...

First competitor up and Minato watched that tiny little boy, the youngest out of the participants and still one of the most deadly shinobi out there regardless of age, pummel the shit out of that fifteen-year-old (a fifteen-year-old going against a six-year-old; it almost didn't seem fair...for the fifteen-year-old) and then proceed to end the match by using an Uchiha technique that Minato had taught him to incinerate the older opponent in front of hundreds of spectators.

People say that burning flesh is the most repulsive smell on the face of the planet.

They're absolutely right.

The two new members to Team Eight were not nearly good enough to be in Kakashi's squad.

The boy, an Uchiha who hadn't developed the Sharingan yet despite being eleven years of age, was loud, obnoxious, and late for even the meeting to meet his new instructor. Rattling off some idiotic excuse for being late, Minato had to suppress the urge to roll his bright blue eyes in despair. Uchiha or not, the kid wasn't among the prospective elite that were surely to come in the future. Anyway, the kid obviously wanted a hell of a lot of attention that none of the group was willing to give, and very quickly he was declaring Kakashi to be an 'emotionless bastard with a superiority complex' or something along that nature.

The girl, one of the Dekko Clan children, just blushed and giggled at Kakashi's aloof and annoyed personality. The girl obviously cared more about boys than about being a kunoichi, which was probably going to cause some unrest between the new permanent Team Eight. After all, in all the glances that the knuckleheaded Uchiha was giving the female persona of the group was enough to make Minato fully aware of a potential love triangle going on in the future, Kakashi an unwilling participant.

Kakashi allowed this with barely restrained patience, a trait that had taken the last Namikaze at least two years to bash in that thick skull of his, and yet the blonde knew that it wouldn't last long. Sickingly adoring looks from the Dekko girl, which made the Uchiha upset due to his own sickingly adoring looks directed towards the Dekko girl...it was not going to be a pretty team for the likes of teamwork.

Minato's eyes tried to catch stony grey ones; the ten-year-old was purposefully ignoring the squealing from his new teammate and therefore laid those eerily mature eyes on the blonde's warm and caring sapphire eyes. Ten-year-old, this kid was, and already those eyes looked to be older than Minato's own, almost infinite in the years that he had suffered through. For a long moment, Minato couldn't bear to break the eye contact, somehow sensing that if he did, the young child would be lost forever, untouchable, unknowable to him.

But then the Uchiha began grumbling about favouritism and Kakashi looked away, those piercing grey eyes closing and hiding the lack of expression from his sensei's eyes. And so Minato bustled them up, took them out to a training ground and sat them all down in a row, asking them to describe themselves in the same way that Jiraiya-sensei had done to Minato himself. Name and age. Likes and dislikes. Hobbies. Dreams for the future. Same old questions that had been asked throughout the years by Hokage's and their students. It almost seemed tradition now.

The Uchiha was unremarkable and obvious. "I'm Uchiha Obito, and I'm eleven! Uh, I really like watching movies and eating sweet stuff, and I really love fire! I really don't like self-important jerks and I don't like paying for sweet stuff. My hobbies are eating sweets and playing video games! My dream for the future is to awaken my Sharingan, become an awesome shinobi, and have everyone realise that I'm cool!"

The girl went next, just as unremarkable and obvious, although she was a bit worrying in every aspect of the sense. "I'm Dekko Rin, and I just turned eleven. I really like...I mean, the boy I like is...is...my dream for the future...is...is..." She proceeded to squeal with a bright red face turned in Kakashi's covered one, and Minato fought a yawn before saying, "And what do you dislike?"

Immediately, as if it took no time at all to decide, she yelled, "Obito!" Said boy fell down in distress and Rin fluttered her eyelashes at the Hatake, while both Minato and Kakashi sweatdropped and tried not to look too exasperated and annoyed, respectively. Kakashi just seemed reluctant to let anyone near him, and Minato cleared his throat before saying quite loudly before having to pull the girl off his genius student, "Okay, and you Kakashi?"

For a second, nothing was said. But then, the silver haired boy narrowed his grey eyes and said in a monotonous tone, "I am Hatake Kakashi. I turned ten almost two weeks ago. I don't like anything and I hate everything, except for training with Sensei and developing new jutsu. I do not have hobbies or dreams for the future, because dreams and hobbies do not exist in the shinobi world, and I have resigned myself to being the perfect shinobi for my village to use at their disposal."

The two other children stared disbelievingly at the youngest, while Minato just felt something grip his heart in a painful clutch. He didn't understand why that bugged him, particularly, but it almost seemed wrong to allow that child, that ridiculously genius Hatake, just allow himself to cease to exist personally and give himself fully to a village that had already ordered him to kill multitudes of men and women. Innocent or not.

Minato had been Rin and Obito's age and a Chûnin when he had killed his first man, a nineteen-year-old Cloud shinobi. Kakashi, however, had been barely six and a Genin, and the man had been an Jônin from the Mist Village, and around twenty-five-years-old at the least. And now, Kakashi was reaping in the deceased bodies by his hand, the number increasing by the day, and Minato wondered vaguely if the kid would stop killing so much now that he had a team of Genin that were obviously staring at the bottom of the totem pole.

Minato dismissed them, telling them to meet at Training Ground Six at seven o'clock tomorrow—and to forget lunch, because they'd probably throw it up—and met Kakashi at the bottom of the stairs. The other two were long gone, off to wherever they had to go, and Kakashi said quietly, "I don't like them."

"Ah," Minato said with a brief smile as they walked towards Kakashi's apartment that he had purchased after becoming a Genin and therefore an adult. "So that's what you really dislike. And what else, may I ask?"

Kakashi was silent for a long moment, watching idly walking villagers pass by with armfuls of groceries and children alike. But finally, the ten-year-old said with growing conviction, "I don't like sweets. I don't like having to do D-ranked missions when I should be doing B- and C-ranked. I don't like people looking at me like they do. And I don't like girls."

Minato had to laugh to disperse that little glowing ember that burned in his insides, knowing that nothing good would come with examining the origins of the spark. So instead he just laughed, but only in that small way that let Kakashi know that Minato wasn't laughing at him and instead of the reasons behind Kakashi's words. "Well," the blonde replied after he had somewhat controlled himself. "Obito and Rin aren't exactly what you're used to, but I still expect teamwork from the three of you. And as for the D-ranked missions...there's nothing I can really do about that, but since you're a Chûnin, I'm sure they'd allow you to do solo escorts and other little things." Minato didn't tell the ten-year-old that he wouldn't like having Kakashi with him, because after five years of training together, sharing blood and sweat and tears on the battlefield and multitudes of missions, Minato had grown accustomed to the child's constant companionship. Even if Kakashi's companionship consisted of more silence and training than talking and relaxing.

Minato hesitated, then stopped at the door of Kakashi's apartment, debating on whether to bring up the subject. Girls and that whole thing would have to be explained sooner or later, even though Minato was pretty sure that conversation would probably be less awkward than one might think, but still, Kakashi was ten, not at all like that blonde sixteen-year-old named Shiranui Genma that Kakashi had taken the Chûnin Exams with. That kid was having more sex than everyone in the village combined, and to compare Kakashi to that boy would be ridiculous.

But the idea of Kakashi having sex with just about anyone wasn't really ridiculous, per se. To Minato, the mere thought sent something cold down his spine, as if his Kakashi shouldn't really grow up. He should be a kid with absolutely nothing to hurt him anymore, a young boy with a happy family and a whole childhood ahead of him.

But Kakashi hadn't been a child since the day he seen his father dead on the floor, lying in a pool of his own blood, and the likes of Minato couldn't really change that.

He hesitated for a bit too long, and Kakashi said with a raised silver eyebrow, still no emotion crossing his intense charcoal eyes, "What is it Sensei? You look troubled." Minato unconsciously flicked his long blonde bangs out of his eyes and shook himself out of his thoughts, giving the boy a bright smile that didn't reach his eyes. "It's nothing Kakashi. Don't worry about it. I'll see you tomorrow, alright? Don't forget to skip breakfast."

It was meant as a joke to lighten the mood, considering the silver haired boy knew exactly what was coming and that it was pointless to skip his morning meal (not that the kid ate much anyway, the nutjob) but instead those eyes sharpened as they seemed to dig into his soul and read his thoughts like a scroll to the naked eye.

But the kid just nodded once and said briskly, "Ja ne, Sensei."

And as the child genius disappeared into the building of his apartment, Minato whispered in the wind, "Ja ne, Kakashi."

The child startled awake with mismatched eyes wide and in horror.

Minato didn't look at the silver haired boy—he's a preteen now, Minato, don't forget that, even if you don't want to remember—he knew that if he looked he might just break himself. Perhaps it wasn't the most wise thing to do, because the child choked, took a shattering breath, and grasped the cloth of Minato's Jônin long-sleeve as if making sure that his sensei was actually there.

Minato was, and Rin was, and Kakashi was alive, but Obito was nothing more than decaying blood and gristle at the bottom of a pile of rock. Vaguely, Minato said in a soft voice, "Hm. You're awake." He glanced at the boy, instantly wishing that he hadn't, because that boy had two eyes, one of the charcoal miracles gone in exchange for a vermillion orb that just didn't seem right and yet seemed completely right all the same.

The boy sat up, flinched away from the blonde, and practically yelled with a fair share of emotion in the depths of that timbre, "Sensei! But how?"

Again Minato steeled himself and turned toward the shaken boy, pulling out that kunai with the seal on the handle and twirling it around his index finger. "The jutsu formula in this kunai knife sets a mark, allowing me to quickly hop around with my transportation technique." Minato set it down on the rock between them as Kakashi asked quickly, "And the enemy?"

"I dealt with all of them," the Namikaze told him softly, and watched as the boy straightened up in alarm. "What about Rin?" he exclaimed, shocking Minato greatly yet again at the uncharacteristic display of emotion. "Where is she?"

Minato pointed, not wanting to ever look away from those eyes, those strange and beautiful and wrong eyes, but he had to when Kakashi's attention focussed on the direction the blonde indicated. Softly, glancing at that masked, thirteen-year-old Jônin whispered in untold sorrow, watching Rin stare into the stars, "I'm sorry I couldn't make it in time...Rin told me everything..."

He glanced back at Kakashi and saw that the silver haired boy was crying, that Sharingan eye slowly swirling its two tomoe around the pupil. Crystalline droplets leaked out of the mismatched orbs and Minato couldn't recall seeing that boy weep once in his life, even after Kakashi's militaristic father had died by his own hand. But that boy collapsed on himself and Minato caught him, hating that his mind was in peace with the last Hatake in his arms, hating that he could hold the thirteen-year-old with everything holding him back. Hating that he could comfort the child as he sobbed in Minato's flak jacket and love every second of it.

Kakashi cried, and the heavens continued to glitter on, beautiful even in the presence of destruction.

Minato made love to Kushina after burying Obito.

He made love to her because he loved her, loved her with all his heart, knowing that everything was good when his Kushina was here. Wild, laughing Kushina. The redheaded vixen with lightly tanned skin and a smile that lit up a room with serenity...despite the prank she was pulling.

And yet with all that love, he nearly bit clean through his tongue at his climax holding Kakashi's name inside.

He walked the deserted grounds after the exhausted woman was asleep, knowing that Kakashi was grieving for one of the only people that had ever cared about him, and that he blamed himself for letting Obito down after all they had been through. After all Team Minato had been through. Chûnin Exams, Jônin Exams, shitty D-ranked missions before numerous C-ranked missions and eventually one B-ranked mission that cost them a teammate and destroyed three lives.

He journeyed to the gravestones first, knowing that Kakashi would probably be there instead of the memorial, because it was recent and hard and just there, still with fresh carnations on the grave from Rin and the roses from Obito's mother and the goggles that Kakashi had taken in a last effort to remember the Uchiha forever. Yeah, the broken thirteen-year-old would most certainly be there, ready to spend the night on the foot of Obito's headstone, even though the loud boy's body was probably gone with the rain by now.

He thought about the Hatake, wondering if this was a good idea or if it was just plain stupid seeking him out after nearly crying out the young boy's name during his culmination with the woman he had been living with for a year now. Maybe it was moronic and idiotic and ridiculous and so many other things, because he should probably cool off first, think this whole thing through before it drove him mad with prospects.

But those mismatched eyes were crying in the darkness of the sky, and Minato could sense it to his bone marrow; he knew that regardless of what he realised he felt or didn't feel at all, he had to be there for Kakashi or one of the only purposes in life would be gone. He had made a pact to himself after all, to never let that boy be alone again. The silver haired boy wouldn't survive past another loss of a precious person if there was no one around to pick up the pieces.

Minato felt like crying himself. Falling for a thirteen-year-old child was most certainly a prison sentence at the best. And Minato just really wasn't the kind-of person to allow that to happen to himself, yet here he was, walking towards that boy as the silhouette curled in a fetal position at the foot of Obito's shadowed marker and weeping in the memories, his dark form covered in silver moonlight.

The Sharingan was too much on that boy's body and chakra network. So that hitai-ate covered the kekkai genkai, because that was as close to off as Kakashi was going to get. And it was either that or he would have to get rid of the only thing keeping the boy from losing it completely. Mission completed or not, Hatake Sakumo's legacy was pressing down on his thirteen-year-old son at this moment, and it was Minato's job to make sure that the kid didn't make the same mistake as his disgraced father. The blonde didn't know what he would do if those mismatched eyes, those glorious and piercing and perfect eyes, closed forever (blood blood blood everywhere covering the floor and matted in the unconscious Kakashi's hair his father's blood everywhere blood blood blood).

The boy was shivering, a tense and wet eyelid hiding the remaining charcoal miracle from the Namikaze, and his skin was pale in the chill of early fall. Being out here much longer was bound to make the kid sick with pneumonia or worse, so Minato clenched his jaw and picked the shaking body up into his arms. He nearly wanted to moan softly at the hands that fisted into the navy blue fabric on his chest and the filtered hot breath that the blonde felt on his neck. But he didn't, because Kakashi was a student—a student, goddamnit!—and Kakashi was thirteen—a minor!—and Kakashi was a hot-blooded male—Kami, what trouble that would cause—and for fuck's sake, Kakashi was in pain, in agony, and why was Minato even thinking about this?

Minato's eyes focussed on the dark road ahead, leading the way to Kakashi's apartment on the other side of town and gritting his teeth to dispel the tingles that shot down his spine when Kakashi just curled into him, one arm curling around the blonde's neck and fingers burying in the golden strands. That cool metal pressed into Minato's neck, covering the Uchiha bloodline, but the material surrounding the metal was damp with tears, Kakashi's tears, Obito's tears.

The walk was too long and yet not long enough, and he gently went up the stairs until he reached his student's level and quickly opened the door with a chakra-infused finger. He went inside, marvelling yet again at how remarkably clean the boy was compared to other kids his age. Everything in perfect order, nothing out of place. Nothing personal except that picture of the four of them back when they were still Team Eight and half Genin, and all the decor cold and stoic as Kakashi had been before losing a comrade and a brother.

Minato laid the fitful thirteen-year-old down on the raised bed, disturbing the carefully made sheets and comforter, and reached towards Kakashi's backboard, picking up the frame from the shelf and trailing sad blue eyes on the face that haunted Kakashi's thoughts. Obito looked so innocent here, pissed off and downright devious at the same time, those hideous orange goggles framing his dark eyes. The blonde smiled with nostalgia and then placed the frame on the wood again, face down so Kakashi wouldn't have to see that face when he woke up and turned his eyes (eye) on the memories it brung.

He watched the boy as he let out shuddering breaths, his small frame curled upon itself as the only showing eye flickered beneath the eyelid as he dreamed his nightmare. Minato hesitated, then reached down and removed the hitai-ate, showing that violent scar that disappeared underneath the mask and tore through the pale skin of his eyebrow and forehead.

He closed his eyes and breathed deeply for a couple of moments before steeling his rampant emotions behind locked gates and beginning to undress the boy as much as he dared, starting with the flak jacket and arm guards and then taking off the belt around his waist that held Rin's medical pack and few other more sinister items. He unwound the weapons' holster around the boy's right leg and then the regulation sandals on his feet. The bandages around the boy's ankles were a bit more taxing to Minato's mind, but he ignored the temptation to caress the boy's soft skin and removed the cloth strips, setting all of the gear on the shelf above Kakashi's head and watching the boy twitch in his sleep.

For a long moment, he watched the child, wishing that he didn't have to feel anything for once in his life, because feeling meant pain, and pain was something that Minato was just not really used to feeling. He wished that he could just not feel so damn strongly for the boy, Sakumo's brat, that cold boy that had nothing to turn to but memories of his dead father and the years he had spent with Minato and two others, one of which was now dead.

But he had to feel, because he was human after all, and he prayed that this would all go away soon, for he didn't know how long he could do this. He should stick with Kushina, a woman he loved, instead of pining after something he just simply couldn't have, no matter how much he wanted it. The boy was untouchable, a body and a mind he couldn't call his, and no amount of wishing would ever change that.

But those eyes were mesmerising, even with Obito staring back at him, and the boy was filling out, maturing all before Minato's eyes, becoming more appealing every day. Thirteen or not, the Hatake had always been handsome just like his father, but Minato hadn't spent much time with the elder Hatake, and therefore Minato hadn't felt anything for the White Fang. Sakumo wasn't Kakashi, and Kakashi was perfect in Minato's eyes.

Minato felt a tear roll down his cheek at what he couldn't have, and he turned on his heel and left, mind torn and body in agony.

Three weeks since Obito had been taken and his mind was at war with itself.

Nothing helped. He couldn't sleep because of the dreams that he wanted to think as nightmares but could only classify as intoxicating to his senses; he couldn't eat because of the need to just empty his stomach at the mind-eating guilt and sick pleasure he got from all of this. He couldn't function, and he should've been happy and enthusiastic when Sarutobi-sama gave the Council the word that Minato was to be the Yondaime Hokage in two weeks time. He should've just forgotten about what he was feeling in his gut and his heart and his loins to put himself completely in the function of the next Hokage (it's your dream, you baka; why in the hell are you doing this to yourself?) but he couldn't.

He was thirteen, for Kami's sake, and these thoughts were uncalled for. Minato was the teacher, Kakashi's fucking sensei! And the age difference. Who cared if the village had been classifying the Hatake as a full-fledged adult since five years old. He was fucking thirteen!

Minato hated himself for wanting that silver haired boy, that stoic and emotionless rock, in his arms. He hated himself more than anything in this world, regardless of being named the future Hokage and his Kushina with child...

With his new wife by his side, her deep red hair blowing in the chilled wind of the Hokage tower, he called out to the shinobi, kunoichi, and civilian villagers alike that he was to be the new Hokage, and all of the promises that came with it. Protect the great village of Konohagakure no Sato, gratefully receive the torch to carry the Will of Fire, be the great leader that he was prepared for.

Jiraiya-sensei and Sarutobi-sama stood on the other side of him, happy grins on their faces as the blonde addressed the village from a different perspective, and his pregnant wife grinning with glee as she held his arm, and Minato gave a bright smile that didn't seem to reach his eyes.

Those types of smiles were more common nowadays than the real ones.

Below, in the cheering crowd, he saw that silver haired boy, two mismatched eyes intense regardless of the distance, and his smile faded slightly as he lost himself in that stare.

Maybe it was just Minato, but Kakashi seemed...sad.

But Minato was sad too, and watched that porcelain form slink off into the crowd.

Gone in the sunshine.

"What's going on with you, Minato?"

Said blonde turned to his sensei and smiled the brightest that he could possibly accomplish, and it would've fooled anyone. Anyone except the people who knew him best, and while that number was a surprisingly small amount, Jiraiya was one of them, and his eyes narrowed even more than they already were.

"Don't you deliver that stupid fake smile at me, you brat. Tell me what's gotcha so upset or I'll have ta beat it outta ya." Any other day (any other year would be more exact, because it's been a year since you realised you're in love with your thirteen-year-old student, you sick old fuck) and Minato probably would've laughed good-naturedly at his sensei's bad mafia act, but it was not any other day, so Minato just dropped the smile and slumped at the desk, paperwork being forgotten for the time being.

"It's just...Kakashi." He decided to skirt around the subject, because it was better to tell the truth to the toad summoner, because he knew Minato like the back of his aging hand. But while he was being truthful, only fools told the whole truth. He knew that Jiraiya probably wouldn't condemn him, but it was still something that he wanted to keep to himself. Falling in love with the kid was completely off the charts in just plain wrong, and as much as Minato trusted his sensei, the blonde just couldn't tell him. It was just too much.

"He's just entered ANBU, and I'm worried about him." Minato bit his lip, really concerned about the kid. But Jiraiya picked up on it pretty quickly. "Yeah, but you know as well as I do that the little pup can take care of himself. He's been doing things like this for years, and while not on this level, he's bound to rise pretty quickly in the corps, and I'm sure he'll be fine. So what's this really about, Minato? You don't need to keep secrets from me, and I can tell that you're holding back right now."

The Yondaime's cloudy blue eyes gazed out the large windows, taking in the sight of the beautiful city and the embarrassing replica of his face etched in the mountain. He remembered training in those mountains with Kakashi, back when life hadn't been so difficult and Minato had felt nothing but fatherly love for the orphaned child. Back when life hadn't been so filled with angst and pain and lust all the time. Back when it was just the two of them rushing around the forest, not really much in the world to care about.

"I miss him," Minato whispered, and finally gave in to the breakdown that he had been trying to avoid. Well, at least Jiraiya was there to make sure that the blonde didn't fall apart completely.

Minato cried like he had never cried before, for Kushina and the coming baby and the fact that he just didn't love that woman as much as a silver haired boy that took his breath away every time he laid his deep blue eyes on that slightly short, lanky frame.

He wept and he wept, and all the while, Jiraiya murmured, "Minato, you're a fool for loving that boy. You're a fool."

He fell asleep against paperwork and his brain hurting from holding in his love.

It seemed that even while the village was burning, he couldn't stop that jolt in his heart.

His wife had given birth to a baby boy only an hour ago, and he was healthy, beautiful, and had Minato's blonde hair and blue eyes and golden complexion. Naruto, his name was. After the character out of Jiraiya's novel. Perfect for the child, newborn and already motherless.

Although Minato was pretty sure that he would be fatherless on the first day of his existence, because the Kyuubi no Kitsune was making everything burn, making everyone die around him and that was something he just couldn't let happen to the people of this village. Something had to be done, and there was no one else that could do it. Namikaze Minato was the only one that could save the people and the land itself from ceasing to exist.

Besides, while the father would die sealing the monster inside of his just-born Naruto, he was still not exactly too terrified of the prospect of death. All shinobi die, some in worse ways that others, and Minato was dying for something he believed in. The Sandaime was perfectly aware of the implications of the decision: Naruto is to be treated as a hero, Naruto is to be well taken care of, Naruto is to live like any other child in Konohagakure...Kakashi is to be taken care of with everything that could be given to the boy and Rin is to become a Senior staff member at the hospital.

Scratch that; no more Rin, the last of the Dekko Clan.

Kakashi glanced up into Minato's withdrawn eyes from on top of Gamabunta's back, holding Rin in his arms as she lay dead on the ground. Those mismatched eyes bloodshot and swollen with tears as he cradled his only remaining friend besides Minato (and you won't last long for Kakashi, will you, because you're going on a suicide mission and you know it) in his shaking limbs. God, how hard it was to look into those eyes and see the desperation and the horror or realisation. Kakashi was perhaps the smartest shinobi in the village, and he knew what Minato was up to. He knew, and Minato could see it in his eyes.

The boy let out a choking sob that echoed in the screams of the burning forest, and dropped the girl on the ground. That glorious boy hopped up trees and boulders with tired, chakra-infused limbs to reach the back of Gamabunta, and when his sandaled feet touched the soft back of the frog chief, his arms nearly squeezed the life out of his sensei before Minato could even really react. "No, Sensei, please don't do this. I can't lose everyone...I can't lose you, not you! You're the only precious person I have left! Please don't do this! Please!"

Minato closed his dulled eyes and wrapped his own arms around the object of his desire and felt a tired submission. What he was doing was going to break this boy apart, and yet there was nothing else that could be done.

And knowing that this was the only time he had before he succumbed to his death, he pulled that face away from his shoulder and pulled that irritating, dirty mask down to pool at the fourteen-year-old's neck, letting his lips press gently on the younger's. The silver haired boy let out a sob against Minato's lips but did not pull away, and soon, as the pressure from the Kyuubi got greater with proximity, Kakashi moved his own lips against his teacher's.

And that was the most beautiful thing, besides the sight of his newborn son that he had only laid eyes on once and would never see again, that Minato had ever experienced.

Warm, soft, and he'd never get to taste him again. Minato wished that he could've spent at least one stolen moment before this had to happen, and hated that he hadn't just let himself touch every dip and point of this boy...this man.

And then Minato whispered, "Take care of my son, Kakashi. Please take care of my son."

Kakashi's sobs were so heartbreaking that Minato just wanted to steal the boy away and run off into the sunset, living the rest of his life with this perfect, breathtaking, angelic being with tears pouring down his pale, soft cheeks. "No...please don't leave me...don't leave me...please don't leave me alone..."

But regardless, Minato could never do that. He had to make a home for his child, for his little newborn son, and especially the love of his life, the boy that sobbed as he tried to kiss his way into Minato's unbreakable will. "I'm sorry, but this is something I have to do."

And Minato pressed the soft flesh behind his head and compressed it, instantly rendering the boy unconscious, whispering a soft and passionate "I love you" in the silver locks and then leaping off Gamabunta's back with the boy in his arms and giving the limp, now masked body to Uchiha Fugaku, who was fighting desperately in the name of his Clan.

Minato rushed off towards his summon, and did what he had to do.

His last thought before the sealing was of those mesmerising eyes, once both intense charcoal and now two different intoxicating colours, and silver hair spread out on crimson sheets, and Hatake Kakashi, beautiful Kakashi, sleeping in his arms.

-Owari-